The first period, despite not featuring any goals, saw it’s share of action, including a 5-on-3 Hershey disadvantage for a full two minutes and current net minder, Daren Machesney taking a spill.
Binghamton’s two man advantage occurred after the tag team of Zack Smith, and former Bear, Chaz Johnson, plastered former Senator, Greg Amadio, to the boards in the Hershey zone. Alexandre Giroux, another former Senator, interfered with one of the current Senators after he peeled himself off Amadio. While the Bears were the still in the process of trying to touch up and get a whistle signifying the Giroux infraction, Amadio cross-checked Johnson, unsuccessfully trying to goad him into a retaliatory penalty, but successfully giving Binghamton the two man power play.
During the two minutes of power play time, the Bears allowed only two non-threatening shots on goal, both off the stick of Matt Carkner. One of the reason that the Bears were able to limit the B-Sens to only two shots on the power play was the stellar play of penalty killing extraordinaire, Quintin Laing. Laing was magnificent in his role, blocking shots and clearing the puck, while staying on the ice for the duration of the advantage.
Machesney, after stopping an odd-man Binghamton rush late in the period, a result of defenseman, Dean Arsene, being caught up ice pinching, was shaken up colliding with teammate, Keith Aucoin. After being tended to by Bears’ trainer, Dan Stuck, Machesney stayed in the game.
In the second period, trouble started early for the visitors from Hershey when Johnson, despite being denied by Machesney on the doorstep, was able to draw a hooking penalty to Amadio at 24 seconds.
Longtime Bears’ nemesis, Drew Fata’s point blast, with 17 seconds left in the advantage, gave the B-Sens a 1-0 lead at 2:07. Peter Regin picked up the only assist on the Fata goal, muffling Bryan Helmer’s clearing attempt, and then retrieving the puck and shuffling a pass along the blueline to Fata, who finished off the play.
Seconds after scoring his goal, Fata’s actions at 2:39 stopped Giroux from tying the game. Fata, after Giroux had penetrated behind the Binghamton defense, hauled down Giroux, which, in the eyes of the referee, Francois St. Laurent, warranted a penalty shot.
On his penalty shot attempt, Giroux tried to beat Glass on the back hand, but lost control of the puck and never got a shot on goal.
The Bears hit the trifecta when number 21, Graham Mink, on the team’s 21st shot of the game, scored his 21st goal of the season. Mink’s goal, like many of his others, was scored from the doorstep when he tapped in a rebound from a Giroux shot.
In the final two minutes of the period, the suddenly offensive Senators struck twice within 51 seconds, to carve out a 3-1 lead to take to the locker room.
“We had open nets that we missed (in the period), and that’s just the way things are going,” said Woods, trying to explain the late period collapse. “Guys were out of position or taking chances at the end of a shift and not making good decisions.”
In the opening minutes of the third period, penalties to Binghamton’s Matt Carkner and Neil Petruic gave Hershey a two man advantage for 19 seconds, their 7th and 8th power plays of the game. The Bears did not register a shot on the advantage, and also surrendered a short handed goal to Josh Hennessy, his 16th of the season after defenseman, Sami Lepisto stumbled over the blue line while backpedaling.
“You’ve got to get pucks on net. You’ve got guys like Mink and Gordon standing in front of the net; if pucks aren’t getting there, they’re not getting a chance to tip them or a chance for a rebound,” said Woods, whose team was also 0-for-7 on the power play during Wednesday’s loss to Hamilton. “We’re trying to make one more pass, and when you do that, and don’t shoot the puck, we’re not going to score.”
Hennessy finished up the scoring at 17:11 with his 17th goal of the season, a power play marker, giving the Senators the 5-1 win.
Despite the stormy conditions caused by his team’s three game slide, Woods found some positives in the setback.
“I think we worked hard,” he said. “It’s a very tough building to play. We out shot them and did a lot of good things, but we just gave up five goals on 22 shots.”
For those Bears’ fans who are troubled by their teams’ recent fall from first place overall, Hershey’s head coach, who has been through trying times like these before, shares his thoughts on what it will take for his team to recover from their recent woes.
“Don’t beat yourself up. We’ve got to realize that we’re a good hockey team that has a lot of talent. You’ve got to try to stay positive.”