The good news on Friday for Binghamton was that captain Mark Parrish returned after missing 15 games with a shoulder injury. Stephane Da Costa, who missed the B-Sens last game, also returned when Binghamton hosted Wilkes-Barre Scranton.
Unfortunately, that’s where the good news ended. The baby Pens’ came in with a purpose, beating the B-Sens handily, 6-1 in front of 3,413 fans at the Broome County Arena.
Alex Grant and Matt Rust each tallied twice for the Penguins, while Nick Petersen added a goal and two assists.
"I'm not going to get too deep into it, because I'm not going to say something I'm going to regret," B-Sens Coach Kurt Kleinendorst said. "But I think anyone that's seen us play would understand that's probably about as poor of an effort of any team I can ever recall putting in. We've been here before, and I think if we've learned anything, it's that the one thing that you have to do when you're in a situation like we're in is work hard.”
Binghamton’s troubles started when they hot called for too-many-men on the ice at 5:57. That set up the Pens’ power-play and with 30 seconds left in it, Grant beat Binghamton goalie Robin Lehner, to make it 1-0.
“Mentally we weren’t sharp,” said Kleinendorst. “It’s not difficult to make a line change. If you’re a right-winger and the right-winger goes off, you go on, if all of a sudden you have two right-wingers, what does that tell you? Somebody went out that shouldn’t have went out there.
And that was the turning point in the game, because we were fine up to that point. Once they scored that power-play goal, there was nothing left with regard to push back on our part.”
Things went downhill from there for Binghamton, as Wilkes-Barre scored twice more in the period, with goals from Ben Street and Matt Rust, coming 43 seconds apart and just like that, it was 3-0.
Binghamton’s only goal of the night came on a 5-on-3 power-play when Cody Wild and Robert Bortuzzo picked up a hooking call and a holding the stick, 16 seconds apart. The B-Sens took advantage, as Stephane Da Costa fired a cross—ice pass to Locke, who rifled one home from one knee. Josh Godfrey was credited with the second assist.
That was the only goal the Pens’ netminder Scott Munroe would allow. He moved his record to 4-0 against Binghamton this season and dropped his 1.20 goal-against-average that he had coming in.
Wilkes-Barre took the two-goal lead to the locker room, along with a 15-9 advantage in shots.
Things did not get better for Binghamton in the second as defenseman Dan Henningson was whistled for holding-the-stick 11:50 in. The W-B/S power-play went right to work, as Grant smoked one off the post that bounded in behind Lehner, making it 4-1. It was Grant’s second of the night and the only goal of the second period.
Wilkes-Barre outshot Binghamton 11-10 in the period and 26-19 overall.
The visitors added two more goals in the third period. Rust scored his second of the game 8:04 in and Petersen added the closer with 48.3 seconds to go in the game.
“That wasn't good. I hate to overuse the word 'embarrassing' because it seems to get thrown around a lot in bad games, said Binghamton captain Mark Parrish. “But I have to say that one fits pretty well for that game. Wilkes-Barre plays a very simple, hard-nosed game, my hats off to them. They play their game very well and they competed and won all the puck battles, they got the loose pucks.”
Lehner faced 33 shots, saving 27. His record is now a dismal 7-16-1. A far cry from the playoff MVP goalie he was a year ago. The situation has been made worse by a few injuries and a suspension.
All that said, Kleinendorst was not about to put Friday’s loss on Lehner.
“I can’t blame this one on Robin, I don’t think the shots were indicative of the game,” said Kleinendorst. I thought Robin was fine, I don’t think Robin was our problem. I think it was all of us, I don’t think it was just one guy, it was all of us.
This is when your character guys step up and so for me, it’s simple, that starts tomorrow. We’ll find out who our character guys are and from here on out for me, it’s gotta be really more about effort than anything. If you have character than you’ll compete.”
For more info: W-B/S Penguins @ Binghamton gamesheet
With the loss, Binghamton dropped to 20-28-2-1. Kleinendorst was not ready to name a goalie for tonight on Friday. Mike McKenna would be the other option, besides Lehner.
The good thing about games like this is that there are usually games the next day to help the team rebound. That is the case for Binghamton, who welcomes the Portland Pirates to the Broome County Arena at 7:05 PM tonight.
The B-Sens have 25 games left as of now and are mired in a five-game losing streak. They currently sit 12 games out of a playoff spot, so they need to put something big together, very quickly.
Game notes: Andre Petersson received his January Rookie Of the Month league award prior to Friday’s game. Petersson’s home goal-scoring streak was stopped at seven.
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