UTICA, N.Y. – The Binghamton Senators fell 5-2 on the road after the Utica Comets net early goals in all three periods.
Working their second power-play early in the opening period, Brendan Gaunce gave Utica the 1-0 lead with his 14th strike of the season. Binghamton managed to even the score with less than two minutes to play in the first when Cole Schneider slapped home a centering feed from newcomer Casey Bailey. The teams skated to the first intermission tied 1-1 with the B-Sens holding the slight advantage in shots on goal 13-10.
Utica’s power-play unit once again gave the Comets the lead early in the period after Hunter Shinkaruk notched his 19th goal of the year 1:02 into the second to push the score to 2-1. Binghamton tied the game with less than four minutes to play in the frame when Max McCormick jumped a Utica pass and converted on a breakaway attempt to send the teams to the final break even 2-2.
The Comets regained the lead just 1:28 into the final frame after Taylor Fedun completed a odd-man rush for the hosts to make it 3-2 Utica. Darren Archibald increased the Comets’ lead to 4-2 with just over 10 minutes to play before an empty-net tally from Alexandre Grenier pushed the final score to 5-2.
Matt O’Connor stopped 28 of 32 shots faced in the losing effort while Joe Cannata allowed two goals on 29 shots faced to earn the victory.
Binghamton heads to the Canadian Tire Centre tomorrow for a 5:00p.m. faceoff versus the Syracuse Crunch before returning home for back-to-back home games versus the St. John’s IceCaps on February 19 and 20.
