BINGHAMTON, NY – Colton White and John Quenneville each scored twice as the Binghamton Devils ended a two-game losing streak on Wednesday with a 6-2 victory over the Charlotte Checkers in front of over 4,300 fans at Floyd L. Maines Veterans Memorial Arena.
Binghamton took the lead on its second power play of the first period for the 1-0 advantage. Tim Kennedy sent a hard pass to Jacob MacDonald and he let a wrist shot go through traffic and beat goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic for his 11th goal of the year. The goal came at 9:47 of period one with assists from Kennedy and Quenneville.
White added to Binghamton’s lead just over three minutes later with his first American Hockey League goal. Kennedy held the puck at the bottom of the left circle and White slid down from the point position to take Kennedy’s pass and lift it under the cross bar. White’s goal was his first in the AHL and second pro goal of his career at 12:50 of the opening period for the 2-0 lead. Assists were given to Kennedy and Michael Latta and Binghamton took a 2-0 lead into the first intermission while leading in shots, 7-4.
Charlotte split Binghamton’s lead in half as Valentin Zykov scored his team-leading 19th goal of the year. After being denied twice, Zykov put the third chance by the right leg pad of goaltender Ken Appleby to decrease the Devils’ lead to 2-1 with assists from Andrew Miller and Roland McKeown.
Shortly after, Brandon Baddock tallied his first of the night and second of the year on a shot from the left wing circle that beat Nedeljkovic on the glove side for a 3-1 lead. Nathan Bastian helped set up Baddock’s goal with a pass from below the goal line and he had the only assist 10:22 into the second.
Latta continued to produce for the Devils as he and Quenneville teamed up to put the Devils ahead by three late in the second period. On a two-on-one rush, Quenneville fed Latta who returned a saucer pass back to Quenneville and he slid the puck by the left leg pad of Nedeljkovic for a 4-1 lead with 1:12 left in the period. After two periods, Binghamton led 4-1 with Charlotte holding a 14-13 shot advantage.
White scored his second of the night on a snap shot from the left wing circle that went over the left shoulder of Nedeljkovic to give the Devils a 5-1 lead just 1:29 into the third period. White’s goal was assisted by Ben Thomson and MacDonald.
Quenneville increased the lead to five goals with his second of the evening and eighth of the year as he too went top shelf from the left wing circle. Quenneville’s goal had helpers from Baddock and Josh Jacobs at 5:28 to give the Devils a 6-1 lead.
Charlotte scored late and the Devils came away with the 6-2 win. Appleby stopped 20 of 22 shots for the victory while Nedeljkovic stopped 13 of 19 in the loss.
