Prospect Update: B-Sens Back on Track
After a slow start to the season, the Binghamton Senators have responded by picking up wins in five of their last seven
Coming off a big 7-0 win last Saturday, the Binghamton Senators hosted the St. John's IceCaps on Wednesday night. Starting in goal for the Sens was Scott Greenham.
The Sens rode their momentum from last weekend and came out flying, outshooting the IceCaps by a 7-1 margin early on in the game. The line of Schneider-Pageau-Dzingel looked very strong out there early, producing a ton of quality scoring chances but they could not finish. Later on in the period, a spin-o-rama pass from Garrett Thompson to Carter Camper, who backhanded it over to Shane Prince who went top shelf on the IceCap goaltender to give the Sens the early lead.
Despite only outshooting the IceCaps by a 10-7 margin, the Senators mostly dominated the play throughout the whole first period. They went into the first intermission up 1-0.
Prince would add his second of the game by showing great patience, walking into the slot and ripping one past the St. John's goaltender to put the B-Sens up by two. Shortly thereafter, Chris Wideman would unleash a slapslot from the point through a maze of bodies to extend the lead to three. The game looked to be in good hands going into the second intermission.
The Senators seemed to struggle with clearing the crease all night. Early in the third period, the IceCaps' Kosmachuk came in and bowled over Greenham, Fredrik Claesson then dropped the gloves for a rare fight in response. The IceCaps continued to crash the crease and were able to get on the board with a scramble goal. Some harsh words from the bench earned them an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty and put the Sens on the penalty kill immediately following the goal. The IceCaps would take advantage and trim the score to 3-2. Before the period was even halfway over, the Binghamton lead had completely evaporated when St. John's tied it up on a shot from down low.
Both 4-on-4 and 3-on-3 overtime solved nothing in some back and forth action. The Sens failed to score on all six of their shootout attempts before Kyle MacKinnon of the IceCaps would end it with a snapshot past Greenham.
Binghamton Senators 3 - St. John's IceCaps 4 (SO)
Binghamton Senators Record: 7-8-3
Friday: Binghamton Senators at Syracuse Crunch
Chris Driedger was recalled from the ECHL's Evansville Icemen and was given his first AHL start of the season. The game started off with some hostility, David Dziurzynski dropped the gloves off the opening faceoff. On the following faceoff, Darren Kramer dropped his gloves as well to take on Eric Neilson of the Crunch.
After some strong cycling down low from Guptill, Pageau, and Schneider, they worked the puck up to captain Aaron Johnson at the point who fired it hard on net. Schneider was there for the rebound who put it past Gudlevskis for the early 1-0 Senator lead. The two would connect again two minutes later when Schneider tipped home his second of the game off another Johnson shot.
The Crunch would come battling back. They scored three goals in five minutes thanks to the Crunch's Philippe Paradis, who scored them all including one on a penalty shot. The Senators went into the first intermission down 3-2.
Prince continued his strong play from last game by taking a neutral zone turnover, firing a shot off the rush, and potting his own rebound. He would then add another on a wrap-around to put the Sens up 4-3.
Derek Grant would get in on the scoring late in the third, beating Gudlevskis on the short side. Dziurzynski would add a cherry on top of the game with an empty net goal to make the final score 6-3 and give Driedger his first AHL win.
Binghamton Senators 6 - Syracuse Crunch 3
Binghamton Senators Record: 8-8-3
Saturday: Rochester Americans at Binghamton Senators
Luke Richardson turned back to Scott Greenham in net, giving Andrew Hammond his third game of rest. Prince opened the scoring for Binghamton late in the first period. The goal looked very similar to his goal from a couple night's ago when he walked in and ripped it past the goalie. Matt Puempel added a goal when he was left wide open in the slot, and then Dziurzynski would extend the lead to three with one of his own when Rochester's goalie couldn't find the loose puck.
In the third, the Sens got caught puck-watching and scrambling around their own zone on a pair of occasions that the Americans took advantage of to score two goals of their own.
Jean-Gabriel Pageau would answer back for the Sens with a snipe off the rush. Shortly thereafter, Rochester would cut the lead to one, but could not find an equalizer. The win gave the Sens points in all of their last five games and wins in five of the past seven.
Binghamton Senators 4 - Rochester Americans 3
Binghamton Senators Record: 9-8-3
Who Stood Out this Week:
Shane Prince: Scored five goals and recorded one assist this week. He has really shown some flashes of brilliance in the offensive zone with some good looking goals. It is really great to see the pucks start to go in for Prince after a slow start. He now has points in his last seven games and has nine goals and eight assists through 18 games.
The Week Ahead:
Friday, December 5 at 7:00pm. Binghamton Senators at Rochester Americans
Saturday, December 6 at 7:00pm. Adirondack Flames at Binghamton Senators
Sunday, December 7 at 3:00pm. Binghamton Senators at Hartford Wolf Pack
Notable Updates from North American Prospects:
Francis Perron: He closed out the last week of the month with four assists in three games. He recorded at least one point in every game in November, scoring eight goals and adding 14 assists over 12 games.
Nick Paul: He scored two goals and three assists this past week, and is now tied for 15th in the OHL in points.
Ben Harpur: Chipped in with three assists in three games with the Guelph Storm.
