BSens Suffer 7-2 Loss In Hershey
Bears’ 4 unanswered goals in the 2nd proved too costly in the rout over Binghamton
Senators gave it their all until they simply ran out of gas when the third game in four days took its toll as the Hershey Bears walloped Binghamton 7-2 on a Saturday night at The Giant Center in Hershey, PA. Binghamton (2-3-0-1) suffered their second loss in as many nights while Hershey (2-2-2-0) won their second in six attempts on the season.
With goalies Matt O’Connor and Chris Driedger up for Ottawa, Scott Greenham made his season debut a thing to forget, as he gave up all seven on 31 shots, while the Sens managed just 17 of their own.
Phil Varone put his team up front first as he busted his way out of the penalty box and defenseman Michael Kostka set him free with a home-run pass for a breakaway, and beats goaltender Joe Cannata up high, glove side at 7:12 in the first. That would be all the scoring as Greenham looked sharp early on.
Then things turned ugly as the Bears scored four unanswered goals in the middle frame that caught the Senators flat footed. There was a screen shot off the stick of Madison Bowey that tied it, then a turnover by Zack Stortini as he was hit from behind by Chandler Stephenson. The puck popped loose to Christian Thomas as he rifled it by Greenham from the slot for a 2-1 Hershey lead.
Riley Barber then stretched the lead by two as he skated in-between three Senators and scored on a low shot through Greenham’s five hole as Stortini, Patrick Sieloff and Andreas Englund were all caught looking. Then a lucky bounce that went Hershey’s way when a shot by Jakub Vrana hit Englund in front and bounced into the net off of Greenham’s leg pad that made the score 4-1.
There was some light when Casey Bailey scored his team high third of the season for a power play goal with a snipe from within the shooting lane with 20.9 seconds left in the second to close the gap by two, but that would be as close as they would get the rest of the way.
Hershey added three more goals in the final 20 minutes to round out the attack for a 7-2 thumping as there just wasn’t enough gas left in the tank as Binghamton managed just eight shots in the final two periods.
POST GAME NOTES
- Hershey always is a hard place for the Senators to earn any points as they have been dominated for years in their barn. Tough venue to play in.
- Power play continues to struggle with a 5 on 3 advantage for 2 minutes in the first period, but nothing to show for. Both teams ended up 1⁄4 on the PP.
- Both teams played a man short on defense as Guy Lepine was tossed during a first period scrum as he wrestled with one of the linesman trying to get loose to help one of his teammates. Tyler Lewington was sent packing as he continued to wrestle around the ice after Mike Blunden.
- Vincent Dunn went after Paul Carey in the second period after his hard hit to Sieloff that sent him into the boards. Dunn landed a few good rights but nothing major came from it.
- In the third period Chris Carlisle wasn’t too happy with the hit applied by Hershey Captain Garrett Mitchell to his partner Kostka that sent him to the ice, as Carlisle challenged him near center ice. Not much but a wrestling match would be the result as Carlisle is not known to throw down the mitts.
- Alex Vazzano, a 26 year-old career ECHL’er served as the back-up goaltender.
- Chad Nehring is out for 4-6 weeks with a concussion suffered in Wednesday’s game in Utica from a blindside hit./
UPCOMING GAMES
The team is off until next weekend where they will play 3 games in 3 days beginning Friday in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton to take on the Pens.