BINGHAMTON, N.Y. – The Binghamton Senators fell 5-4 to the Syracuse Crunch following a 3 on 3 overtime and five rounds of a shootout.
The Binghamton Senators opened the scoring 1:19 into the first period courtesy of a power-play goal from Matt Puempel. Working the game’s first man advantage, newly acquired center Phil Varone found Puempel alone just below the right faceoff dot who then rifled home his 14th goal of the season. Just shy of the four-minute mark, Jerome Leduc, who was also acquired in last night’s seven-player trade with the Buffalo Sabres, sent a slap shot towards a crowded crease that trickled past Adam Wilcox to make it 2-0 Binghamton. The B-Sens outshot the visiting Crunch 15-8 over the opening 20 minutes of play to keep their two-goal lead heading into the first intermission.
Binghamton added one goal over the middle frame to increase their lead to 3-0. Following another successful penalty kill from the B-Sens, Jason Akeson, the third player sent over from Buffalo in last night’s trade, jumped on a turnover in the Crunch zone before finding Puempel who beat Wilcox for his second tally of the night. Syracuse outshot Binghamton 6-5 through the second period, but Chris Driedger answered to keep the visitors off the scoreboard.
Syracuse scored three goals over a 10 minute span in the final frame to tie up the game. Mike Blunden notched his 17th and 18th goals of the year before Joel Vermin evened the game up 3-3 with his 4th of the year. Michael Kostka pushed the B-Sens out to a 4-3 lead with 49 seconds remaining, but Tye McGinn scored with 9 seconds left in regulation to send the game to overtime.
Despite a fast paced overtime, the team’s had to move to a shootout to determine a winner where Akeson scored for the home team, but Blunden and Matthew Peca both notched goals to give Syracuse the 5-4 win after five rounds.
Driedger finished with 31 saves in the losing effort while Wilcox had 28 stops to earn the win.
