For the second time this week and the third time this month the Hershey Bears will be playing in Binghamton against the fourth place Senators. After starting of the season with 3 wins at home against Bingo the Bears have now lost 3 straight (1 at home, 2 on the road) to the Sens.
Wednesday's game was a first period shootout that turned into a backup goalie showdown and ended with an over matched goalie in a shootout. Daren Machesney and Martin Gerber started the night in goal but neither made it through the first period as Hershey took a 4-3 lead into the second period.
Neither team scored in the second but Bingo got two in the third and Hershey got one to send the game to overtime and ultimately into the shootout. Kris Mayotte was Hershey's goaltender in the shootout and he struggled mightily allowing 3 goals on 4 attempts while Jeff Glass stopped all 3 Hershey tries to get the win.
There is one more meeting between the teams after tonight's game. Neither team is playing great of late but both are still in the playoff race and if the season ended today they would have a 7 game series to fight it out in the first round.
Some good news for the Bears is that Simeon Varlamov is skating and is close to returning to action. He could be ready next week which would take a lot of pressure of the team if he can regain the form he had before the injury.
Hershey Bears
record ~ 37-17-0-5 79 points
standings ~ 1st in East Division
playoff positioning - 4 points ahead of 2nd place
most recent game ~ 6-5 SO Loss @ Bingo, 2/25
last 5 games ~ 2-2-0-1
road record ~ 17-9-0-3
goals for ~ 222
goals against ~178
power play ~ 18.8% (8th)
penalty kill ~ 80.2% (26th)
Binghamton Senators
record ~ 30-20-5-3 68 points
standings ~ 4th in East Division
playoff positioning ~ 5 points ahead of 5th; 6 points behind 3rd
most recent game ~ 6-5 SO Win vs Hershey, 2/25
last 5 games ~ 2-3-0-0
home record ~ 17-8-1-3
goals for ~ 168
goals against ~ 170
power play ~ 22.9% (1st)
penalty kill ~ 81.0% (22th)
last time teams met - Bingo won 6-5 in a shootout in Binghamton on Wednesday.
Players to watch:
Hershey:
C Keith Aucoin (11)- He is on a tear right now with an assist in 10 straight games. In that span he has 4 goals and 13 assists. Against Bingo this season he has scored in 5 of the 6 games.
LW Alexandre Giroux (12) - In the last 8 games he has 4 goals and 8 assists. Against Bingo this season he has scored 5 goals in 5 games.
G Kris Mayotte - He is going to get his 2nd start this season tonight. He is 1-1-1 since being called up by Hershey after coming in for a underachieving Daren Machesney the last 2 games.
Senators:
C Josh Hennessy (23) - He is second on the team with 18 goals. He has 6 goals and 3 assists in his last 9 games including 4 points against Hershey in that span.
LW Ilya Zubov (36) - Leads the team with 39 points but has struggled in February with only 4 assists. 2 of those came Wednesday against Hershey.
LW Denis Hamel (17) - After struggling through the 2008 portion of the season he has erupted in 2009. He has 11 goals and 7 assists in 14 games in calendar year 2009. 6 goals and 2 assists in his last 7 games.
LET'S GO BEARS!!!
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