BINGHAMTON, N.Y. – The Binghamton Senators mounted a valiant comeback only to lose 5-4 in overtime to the visiting Syracuse Crunch. The B-Sens rallied for three third period goals to take a 4-3 lead with less than four minutes to play before Mike Blunden completed the hat trick performance to force the overtime period.
Cody Kunyk notched his fifth goal of the season 2:40 into the opening period to give the Crunch the 1-0 lead. Blunden recorded his first of theevening just shy of the 16 minute mark to give the visitors a 2-0 advantageheading into the first intermission. The B-Sens were outshot 14-6 in theopening 20 minutes of play.
Syracuse needed less than two minutes of play in the second to increase their lead to 3-0 when Blunden converted his second power-play goal of the night off a feed from Jonathan Marchessault. Binghamton’s penalty-kill unit got the hosts on the board 5:49 into the second when Max McCormick buried a feed from Brad Mills past Kristers Gudlevskis for the shorthanded tally.
Despite being outshot 13-10 over the final 20 minutes of play, theB-Sens managed to add three unanswered goals. First it was Cole Schneider at 4:14 to cut the Crunch lead to 3-2 before Matt Puempel converted a power-play chance for Binghamton to even the score 3-3 at 9:25 of the final period. The B-Sens took their lone lead of the night with less than four minutes to play when Carter Camper notched an unassisted goal to make it 4-3. However, with Gudlevskis on the bench in favor of an extra attacker,the Crunch’s Blunden finished the hat-trick bid to even the score 4-4 with 1:10 remaining to force overtime.
The teams traded few scoring chances during the sudden-death frame until Marchessault beat the B-Sens Peter Mannino with just under 12 seconds remaining to give the visitors the victory.
Puempel finished with a goal and an assist for Binghamton while Mills ended the night withtwo helpers. Mannino, who appeared in his first game in a B-Sens uniform,stopped 41 of 46 shots faced in the losing effort.
Binghamton will be on the road starting Wednesday,January 7, when they visit the Portland Pirates for a 7:00p.m. faceoff. Next, the B-Sens will head to Worcester on Friday, January 9, to face the Sharks at 7:30p.m. before concluding the roadtrip Saturday, January 8, against the Manchester Monarchs at 7:00p.m
(Courtesy: Binghamton Senators Hockey)
