Binghamton Senators Win Behind Max McCormick’s 3 Point Night

With a little more than two minutes gone in overtime, Max McCormick led the charge into the offensive zone and eventually picked up the rebound off a wrist shot by defenseman Patrick Sieloff and buried a backhander over St. John’s starter Charlie Lindgren body for the game winning goal, as the surging Binghamton Senators defeated the IceCaps 4-3 at The Floyd on Wednesday.

The win was the team’s third in the last four games and seventh out of a possible eight points, as they are 3-0-1 during that span.

The IceCaps got things rolling first as forward David Broll knocked in the rebound past Binghamton netminder Matt O’Connor as the puck bounced around the slot after a shot from the blueline by defenseman Jonathan Racine. But 24 seconds later, Guillaume Lepine took a cross-ice pass from rookie forward Francis Perron and handcuffed Lindgren with a perfect snipe far corner, upper shelf for his first goal of the season that tied it at one.

Chris Terry gave St. John’s back the lead with his slapper from the right dot that sailed by O’Connor, as Sieloff provided the unfortunate screen for a 2-1 game. Binghamton would out-shoot their opponents by a two to one margin 12-6 after twenty minutes, and looked to get even in the middle frame.

But not before Lindgren with a flash of the leather with his glove save on Phil Varone near the slot. However Varone would soon get the last laugh though, as he connected with Jason Akeson that was reminiscent from the pair of veteran forwards of last season. Akeson skated around the cage and fed to an open Varone in the slot and he sent a one-timer past Lindgren that tied it once again, this time by a score of 2-2 for Varone’s sixth of the season.

Then Buddy Robinson gave the Senators their first lead of the night with his fourth of the season on a nice combination play from McCormick to Kyle Flanagan, to Robinson for his one-timer mid-way through the third period. With the appearance it was going to be a broken play, Flanagan managed to get enough of the puck from a pass by McCormick along the half-wall to backhand it back over to Robinson near the hash marks.

The IceCaps would again score as O’Connor has a customary habit of giving up late game tallies, and this time it was no different. With a little over six minutes left in the third, forward Sven Andrighetto placed his high slap-shot over O’C’s shoulder for a power play goal, as Sens’ defenseman Chris Carlisle was in the box for cross-checking.

Both clubs would get their opportunities late in the third as the overtime period was in play.

Three-on three action took place in the OT session as McCormick scored his sixth of the season as he lifted the puck with a backhand shot over the sprawled out IceCaps’ goaltender and earned First Star of the Game honors with his third point against Lindgren.

POST GAME NOTES

• This team has turned the corner with one of their better performances tonight of the season. But with the positive comes the negative. I’m still having issues with O’Connor that doesn’t set well and doesn’t look to change anytime soon. Regardless of his performance, a real gutsy effort from the defense with only 5 dressed.
• Senators with a big shot advantage (41-20) as this is nothing new. The offense has been slowly coming around and is now beginning to make some of those high shots register for goals.
• There was a vicious hit between two players that so happened to be on the same team, as IceCaps’ Chris Terry and Charles Hudon were involved in a mid-ice collision that sent both down to the ice. It appeared Hudon suffered the most damage though, as he looked to have lost a tooth or two in the aftermath. It’s been a while since I’ve seen that happen as Terry didn’t see his linemate until the very last moment when he tried to pull up, only to knock Hudon down to the ice with his head.
• Roster Moves; Chris Driedger was sent to Wichita to get some playing time while Scott Greenham was called up and served as the back-up to O’C. Robinson and Varone were sent down from Ottawa, but Ben Harpur was called up that left Binghamton with only 5 defenseman. If Harpur remained with the big club and the emergence of Macoy Erkamps continues, I have no problem with this swap amongst the two defensemen.
• Bailey-Varone-Akeson, McCormick-Nehring-Blunden, Robinson-Paul-Rodewald, Perron-Flanagan-Gagne, Loiseau. Lepine/Carlisle, Sieloff/Rumble, Erkamps. Kostka, Rupert and Krushelnyski all injured and listed as day-to-day. Stortini a healthy scratch./

HIGHLIGHTS

UPCOMING GAMES

BSens play two games this coming weekend with the first in Springfield, Mass. to take on the Thunderbirds on Friday.