The visiting Hershey Bears, after running up a pair of three goal first period leads, eventually fell to the Binghamton Senators on Wednesday night in a shootout, 6-5.
Hershey, losers in six of their last eight outings, gained a point in the standings, increasing their division lead to four points over the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins. The Penguins, walloped on home ice by the Hartford Wolfpack on Wednesday, have lost two straight.
The visitors from Chocolatetown got off to a quick start in the encounter when Keith Aucoin scored at 45 seconds of the first period. Aucoin, the overtime hero in Hershey’s dramatic overtime win over the Philadelphia Phantoms on Sunday at Giant Center, beat Binghamton goaltender, Martin Gerber, on Hershey’s first shot of the game.
Two goals within a 14 second span midway through the period, off the sticks of Andrew Gordon and Kyle Wilson, gave Hershey a 3-0 lead and spelled the end of the night for Gerber, who departed after allowing three goals on six shots in 10:45 of action. Jeff Glass replaced Gerber, a veteran of 214 NHL games.
With Dean Arsene already in the penalty box, Oskar Osala took a neutral zone penalty at 13:19, affording Binghamton a short 5-on-3-manpower advantage. The B-Sens did not capitalize on the 5-on-3 but did manage a power play goal off the stick of Mattias Karlsson at 14:37, cutting the Hershey lead to 3-1. All five of Karlsson’s goals this season have been registered on the power play.
Alexandre Giroux’s goal at 17:48, gave Hershey another three goal cushion. Giroux’s goal, his 40th marker of the year, marked the second time that the former Senator has reached the 40-goal plateau.
Denis Hamel, former teammates of Giroux with the B-Sens, quickly countered Giroux’s goal at 18:26 to make it a 4-2 Hershey lead. Hamel’s goal, his 20th of the year, marked the fifth time in his five seasons in the Carousel Capital of the World that he has reached 20 goals.
The Senators, who scored a pair of goals within 51 seconds in the last two minutes of the second period in Hershey’s last visit to Broome County, shattered that record when Josh Hennessy slid a shot through the five-hole of beleaguered Bears netminder, Daren Machesney, at 18:37, only 11 seconds after the Hamel goal.
Hershey head coach, Bob Woods, who was not happy with Machesney’s efforts in the Philadelphia game, pulling him after early in the second period after he allowed three goals, relieved Machesney of his duties at the start of the second period. Kris Mayotte, who collected the win in the Philly game, took over between the pipes for Machesney.
Perhaps, as a result of arm fatigue caused by the numerous goal scoring celebrations in the first period, the second period did not feature a goal, with Glass and Mayotte stopping each of the 13 shots they faced.
Peter Regin’s goal at 5:00 of the period, three seconds after the expiration of a Graham Mink penalty, tied the game at 4.
After Graham Mink’s power play goal at 6:49 gave Hershey another lead at 5-4, Binghamton’s Zack Smith answered with a power play goal of his own at 17:23, sending the game into overtime.
After a scoreless overtime session, the game went to a shootout with Binghamton head coach, Curtis Hunt, opting to shoot first in each round.
Mayotte, after stopping Ilya Zubov in the first round, allowed three straight goals to Hamel, Hennessy, and Greg Mauldin in the subsequent rounds. Glass, stopped bids by Chris Bourque, Matthieu Perreault and Keith Aucoin, to allow the B-Sens to claim the victory.