The Binghamton Senators overcame a 3-1 deficit on Sunday against the Adirondack Phantoms at the Broome County Arena. Jim O’Brien led the way offensively, scoring two goals for the second consecutive game and adding an assist.
Binghamton scored three of their four goals on the power-play, going 3-for-7 overall.
“Power-play was awfully good,” said Binghamton coach Kurt Kleinendorst. “Got us back to even and then got us the lead and after that, guys were just very determined.”
Mike McKenna overcame a shaky start to earn his 11th victory of the season, a 32 save effort.
With the victory, Binghamton upped their record against the Phantoms to 6-0 this season, but it wasn’t easy by any stretch.
Binghamton opened the scoring just 37 seconds into the game when Pat Cannone tapped home a rebound on a shot from David Dziurzynski. Newcomer Dan Henningson earned the second assist and now has two points in two games with the B-Sens.
Adirondack answered back, helped by a penalty by Binghamton’s Mike Hoffman. It took just 25 seconds for the Phantoms to convert, as former Binghamton captain Denis Hamel punched home a rebound, tying things 1-1, just 2:22 into the game.
Jonathon Kalinski gave the Phantoms their first lead of the night with 10:30 left in the first, as he deflected a shot off the stick of Oskars Bartulis, making it 2-1.
The final goal of the Adirondack run came on a rebound shot from Mike Testwuide, who picked up a loose puck on a scramble in front, giving the visitors a two-goal lead, with 9:48 left.
(We) scored an early goal and sometimes that can work against you,” said Kleinendorst. “I don’t think we were ever overconfident, back they come with three goals and we didn’t quit.”
Binghamton went on their first power-play with 4:37 to go when Testwuide got the gate for holding. It took 11 seconds for the good guys to capitalize, as O’Brien got a rebound off of Hoffman’s stick and put it in over the shoulder of Phantoms’ goalie Jason Bacashihua, making it 3-2.
Testwuide found his way back to the sin bin 2:04 later , this time for interference and the B-Sens only took 20 seconds to cash in, as Stephane Da Costa blasted one from the point that looked to deflect off a skate and in, tying things at three. It was his 10th goal of the season, with assists going to O’Brien and Hoffman.
“We weren’t sure we were gonna use Steph tonight, only because he took the red-eye last night,” said Kleinendorst. “He got in a car at LaGuardia at five in the morning, but it’s amazing sometimes how those are the nights where you think you’d be tired, but you go out and you can skate forever.”
The first period ended 3-3, with Binghamton holding a 12-10 shots advantage. They would put up 16 shots in a scoreless second period. McKenna would save all eight shots he faced.
“I give him a lot of credit,” said Kleinendorst of his goaltender. “He was probably one shot away from getting the hook but he settled down and once he settled down, he was really good. He was on his angles, he was really comfortable. He was absorbing everything.
Again, you don’t win in this league if you don’t have goaltending. Robin (Lehner) gave it to us on Friday and Mike gave it to us tonight. If we can get that kind of goaltending from here on out, we’ll win our share of hockey games.”
Each team had a couple power-plays, but the team defense was good as well, especially Binghamton forward Jack Downing, who blocked two successive shots with less than a minute left.
Bartulis would pick up a costly penalty with 41 seconds left, giving Binghamton a late man-advantage. The final 1:19 would carry into the third period.
17 seconds into the final stanza, O’Brien picked up his second goal and third point of the night, when he deposited a Mike Hoffman feed into the back of the net. That would prove to be all Binghamton needed, as they hung on for their second straight 4-3 victory.
“It feels good, it was a great win tonight,” said O’Brien. “It was one of those nights that the referee called a lot of penalties so we had a lot of power-plays. It was a big special teams’ game and we found a way to kill the ones we took and make them pay for taking their penalties.”
“I just feel like we’re back on track again and the guys have got it figured out,” said Kleinendorst. “Now it’s just a matter of getting it out of them every night. I don’t know that they’ll be many pretty nights, but it’s the kind of group that can surprise you. From day one, the one thing this group has done is they’ve always shown their character, they’ve always gotten a long; nobody’s ever turned on anybody. So for me, if we can just keep making that kind of an effort, I think we can keep getting those kind of results.”
For more info: Adirondack @ Binghamton gamesheet
Injury updates: Lehner, who suffered an upper-body injury near the end of Friday’s win against Hershey, should be back by next weekend, according to Kleinendorst.
Patrick Wiercioch, who suffered a freak throat injury in a game back on December 9th, is very close to returning to the lineup.
“I would think at the very least you’re going to see him in one of our next two, which is probably way ahead of schedule for us and for him,” Kleinendorst said. “We’re not putting that in stone, but he’s getting close and he’s worked hard. And I think he might’ve had his last hug with Stirls today. (Assistant coach Steve Stirling).
Binghamton (18-24-1-1) returns to action Friday night, as they play host to the Albany Devils at 7:05 PM.
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