Ross A offers a recap of Ottawa’s 2-1 shootout loss to the Rangers, a game without Jared Cowen but featuring Zack Smith going full Binghamton Senator by taking a bunch of pointless, selfish penalties. I enjoyed what I saw of the game and it will be interesting to see what Cameron does with the lineup going forward (I like Lazar on the fourth line).
Binghamton blew yet another two-goal lead in the third as they lost 4-3 in regulation to Springfield. Shift lengths for some of the vets are getting absurd–over a minute at times for the third line (Stortini-Dziurzynski-Greening), which wouldn’t fly with most coaches. My summary:
1. McCormick is alone in front and cleans up the rebound
2. Stortini is too slow to be timely on the backcheck and then all the Sens lose track of the puck and Mullen gets walked around and Driedger beat with a soft backhand
-Stortini line gives up another 2-on-1 their next shift but Driedger makes a great save
-Carlisle loses the puck at the blueline but Driedger stops the breakaway (Carlisle did help deflect away the rebound)
-Kostka makes the exact same turnover but is able to keep up enough with Lessio enough to knock the puck off his stick
3. Kostka took a dumb tripping penalty, but McCormick and Dziurzynski broke out on a 2-on-0 and the former scored while the latter crashed into the boards and had to leave the game for awhile
-Fantastic point-blank stop on the PK by Driedger
-An example of why Fraser drives me nuts: with no pressure he bangs the puck off the boards to the wrong team
-McCormick with a great chance for the hat-trick off a nice pass from Greening
-McCormick had another A-grade chance on the PP but couldn’t quite hit the hot pass from O’Dell
-Dumb penalty by Dziurzynski as after a couple of big slashes he gets called for a hook; penalty killed, but Kostka proceeds to take a lazy hold right after it–fortunately Springfield took a penalty immediately afterwards
4. Schneider puts in Greening‘s rebound
5. Fraser took a somewhat acceptable tripping call (in this case via a scoring chance) and Springfield scores immediately as a spinorama confused Driedger who thought it was going to be a pass
6. McCormick took a penalty while the goal was being scored which kept Springfield on the PP and they scored off a great cross-ice pass for a one-timer
-O’Dell drew a hooking call, but four BSens could not take the puck off of one Springfield forward while on the PP eventually taking a penalty
7. On a broken play on the PK Driedger is beat by a shot between two Binghamton defenders
-Driedger made a great windmill stop with his stick off a rebound
Despite letting in one iffy goal, Driedger was excellent. The first line wasn’t its usual dominant self (Dzingel was the best of the three of them), but while McCormick played a good game his line didn’t dominate either. I thought Robinson was wasted on the fourth line and would have liked him swapped with Stortini. Binghamton’s special teams continue to be absolutely atrocious and it’s well past time to put the PK struggles on the shoulders of the coach–it’s not getting any better and there’s no shortage of “defensive specialists” on the team’s blueline. Jeff seems to want to put the blame for defensive miscues on Mullen (wanting him benched, which is incredible), but while he wears the goat horns for the first goal against, he’s hardly responsible for the loss. Why Jeff continues to shill for Mark Fraser is beyond me (he’s avoided mentioning most of Fraser‘s mistakes this season), but it does echo the organisation’s opinion.
The IceMen beat Wheeling 2-1 in OT last night, with Bengtsberg getting his sixth straight start. The goals:
1. Wideman finishes off a nice passing play on a 3-on-2
2. A point shot is deflected in
3. Shorthanded towards the end of OT, Leveille splits the defense and goes 5-hole to end it
I haven’t been impressed with Alex Guptill‘s first two games in the ECHL, although he’s talented enough to keep playing. Leveille, despite the goal, continues to play selfishly.
This article is written by Peter Levi (@eyeonthesens)
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