BINGHAMTON, N.Y. – The Binghamton Senators failed to hang on to their one-goal lead after 40 minutes of play and fell 3-2 to the visiting Syracuse Crunch.
Syracuse’s Tye McGinn notched his 15th goal of the year 9:28 into the opening period to give the visiting Crunch a 1-0 lead. The B-Sens power-play unit managed to respond with just over five minutes to play in the period after Cole Schneider redirected Michael Kostka’s shot from the point past Adam Wilcox sending the teams to the first intermission tied 1-1. Syracuse outshot Binghamton 7-4 over the opening 20 minutes of play.
Despite being outshot 12-5 over the second period, Binghamton notched the lone tally of the frame with less than five minutes to play. Kyle Flanagan’s wraparound attempt was initially pushed away by Wilcox, but Kostka alertly activated from his defensive position to knock home the rebound in close for his third strike of the year. The B-Sens held onto the 2-1 advantage going into the final intermission.
The Crunch evened the score 2-2 when Slater Koekkoek sent a slap shot off of Driedger’s blocker that found the back of the net 7:21 into the final frame of regulation. Matt Taormina notched the game-winning tally for Syracuse with just over 10 minutes to play in the period to complete the comeback for the visitors.
McGinn and Taormina each finished with a goal and an assist for Syracuse while Kostka paced Binghamton with a goal and as assist. Driedger finished with 20 saves in the losing effort while Wilcox stopped 21 of 23 shots faced for the win.
Binghamton spends next week on the road traveling to Lehigh Valley to face the Phantoms Wednesday before heading to Rochester on Friday for a matchup with the Americans with both games set for 7:05p.m. The B-Sens finish up on Saturday in Toronto against the Marlies at 5:00p.m. before heading into the AHL All-Star Break. Fans can listen live on US 96.9FM, WINR 680AM or on the iHeart Radio app.
