Phil Varone Shows Up Ex-Team in Blowout Win
Four point night from the veteran as BSens overwhelm the Amerks 6-1 in Rochester
Phil Varone must be a happy man tonight!
For the first time since the trade went down between the two rivals, the Binghamton Senators simply ran the Rochester Americans into the ground in coming up with a 6-1 victory at Blue Cross Arena. Varone (1g, 3a), Jason Akeson (3a) and Jerome Leduc (1g) all ended up smelling like roses against their former team, while Cole Schneider (-3), Eric O'Dell (-4), Alex Guptil (0) and Mike Sdao (1a) saw their modest four game win streak come to a close.
Varone got the party started for Binghamton at 13:12 in the opening period scoring his 10th of the season. The wily vet was able to bury the puck past goaltender Nathan Lieuwen after Casey Bailey lobbed it through some traffic in front, with Akeson picking up the secondary assist as all three crashed the net.
It was Bailey who added one 40 seconds into the middle frame with Akeson feeding him from the wall that led up to his slapper from the top of the circle for a two goal Sens lead. Amerks rookie forward Nick Baptiste cut the lead in half with a wrist shot from inside the blueline that beat goaltender Chris Driedger rather cleanly stick side.
Max McCormick would close out the scoring in the second with a beautiful power play tally with some nice, crisp tic-tac-toe passing involving Kyle Flanagan to Varone to McCormick, as he had an open net to shoot upon.
Another new face got into the act as forward Michael Keranen made it 4-1 Sens, picking up a loose puck that squirted out from behind the net and rifled it past Lieuwen's shoulder, and the rout was officially on. Defenseman Leduc made it a 5-1 affair as the Senators capitalized on another power play with his wrister sent by Lieuwen, as the Amerks goalie looked to have had enough.
Newly signed rookie Mike Borkowski scored his first professional goal after he received a McCormick pass in his skates on an odd man rush, and quickly dispensed the puck glove side into the cage to complete the scoring, sending the home fans to the streets with their chances of making the playoffs at risk.
TONIGHT'S LINE-UP
Bailey-Varone-Akeson
McCormick-Rupert-Borkowski
Keranen-Leveille-Flanagan
Hobbs-Ewanyk-Stortini
Claesson-Carlisle
Lepine-Leduc
Tuzzolino-Harpur
Chris Driedger
Matt O'Connor
WHO'S OUT
Dave Dziurzynski, Mark Fraser injured. Buddy Robinson, suspended 1st of 2
POST GAME NOTES
- Robinson out serving his first of a two game suspension with a kneeing incident against the Albany Devils this past Friday near the player's bench. Borkowski, fresh off his four years playing at Colgate University, took his spot after signing a ATO and saw limited time but looked okay.
- The top line contributed 9 points collectively and swept Star of the Game honors, as Bailey makes a difference as he bumped Keranen off to the third line last week, further solidifying the team's best offensive line. It would be nice to see all three returning next season, as the club finds out where they stand with players in this final quarter.
- Driedger played well securing his fourth win in his last six starts, stopping 30 shots. His record stands at 15-12-3-0, 2.92 GAA, 0.905 SV%, all too impressive numbers for a last place squad, as the 21-year-old is completing his second full season as a pro.
- With this performance now behind them, next weekend's game features the same two teams in Binghamton on Saturday. Should be interesting with the Amerks looking for revenge with the four ex-Senators in the line-up.
BOX SCORE
UPCOMING GAMES
Another three game weekend coming up with the first two taken place in Binghamton. On Friday, it's the Syracuse Crunch followed by the Amerks on Saturday.