A familiar face looked like he would be a thorn in the side of the Senators organization on Friday night.
Ottawa Senator castaway Bobby Butler scored twice for the Albany Devils but it was not enough to hold off the red hot Jakob Silfverberg, as the Binghamton Senators edged the Devils 3-2.
As I pack my things for the Dominican Republic, I once again turn things over to Don Rieber for his take on last night's win. Take it away, Don!
Silfverberg's Scoring Streak Reaches Six in Win Over Albany
The Binghamton Senators made the most of their limited opportunities on Friday night, coming from behind to beat the host Albany Devils 3-2 at the Times Union Center.
Binghamton registered 17 shots on goal for the night, two of their three third period shots found the back of the net. Cole Schneider tallied at the end of the first period and beginning of the second, while Jakob Silfverberg scored the game winning goal with 2:35 left in the third.
Silfverberg has scored in six straight games for Binghamton and has a point in seven consecutive contests.
Robin Lehner made 35 saves between the pipes for Binghamton. His counterpart Jeff Frazee stopped 14.
Much like they did in their 5-3 loss to Syracuse on Wednesday, the Binghamton Senators got off to a slow start and Albany took advantage.
With nine minutes gone in the first period, Binghamton’s Eric Gryba sat for cross-checking, giving Albany their first power play. David Dziurzynski checked Joe Whitney into the boards 26 seconds later, and found himself in the locker room after being tagged with a 5-minute major and a game-misconduct for a check from behind.
That gave Albany a 5-on-3 advantage and it took only 42 seconds for former Binghamton Senator Bobby Butler to find the back of the net, as he beat Lehner to make it 1-0. For Butler it was his team-leading 12th goal of the season.
The Devils dominated the first period with 13 shots on goal, to Binghamton’s two.
The second period was pretty uneventful until the last second, literally. Gryba let a shot go from the point that was knocked in by Schneider and hit the back of the net as the clock hit zero. Gryba and Patrick Wiercioch picked up the assists.
The officials decided to put one second back on the board, forcing a meaningless faceoff to end the second period.
The Schneider goal was Binghamton’s 12th shot in the period. They still trailed 25-14 in that category after 40 minutes, but the game was tied 1-1.
Schneider scored again 1:29 into the third, re-directing a Mark Stone shot past Frazee and giving Binghamton a 2-1 lead.
The Devils tied it with 6:39 left in the period when Butler got a fortunate bounce off the end boards that Lehner was unable to get set on. That made it 2-2.
Binghamton was stymied by the Albany defense all night, but found their way through one more time when it counted most. After a blast off the stick of Mike Hoffman was kicked out by Frazee, Silfverberg was there to knock in the rebound and give Binghamton the lead for good, 3-2.
The B-Sens are now 17-7-1-2 on the season. They remain three points behind the East Division leading Syracuse Crunch.
Binghamton’s road trip continues Saturday against the Rochester Americans, a 7:05 p.m. faceoff.
