BINGHAMTON, NY – A pair of power play goals in the opening five minutes of the game was all the Rochester Americans needed to defeat the Binghamton Senators by a 2-1 score on Saturday night at Floyd L. Maines Veterans Memorial Arena. The Amerks have now won on back-to-back nights to improve to 17-15-2-1 on the season.
Bobby Sanguinetti and Dan Catenacci each scored a power play goal early in the first period to provide Rochester with all the offense it would need, while goaltender Nathan 
Lieuwen stopped 37 of 38 Binghamton shots to preserve the victory. Cal O’Reilly assisted on both goals, giving him a three-game point streak and two consecutive multi-point games. Phil Varone and Evan Rodrigues, each of whom posted season-highs in points in Friday’s win, both picked up an assist in the victory over Binghamton.
Buddy Robinson scored the lone Binghamton goal on the night on assists from Michael Kostka and Eric O’Dell. Netminder Chris Driedger stopped 22 of 24 shots in the loss.
The Amerks’ power play unit clicked immediately, striking for two goals in a span of 3:30. After Binghamton’s Mark Fraser took an early double-minor, the Amerks needed just four seconds of man-advantage time to take a 1-0 lead. Varone won the face-off over to O’Reilly, and the captain set up Sanguinetti for a slap shot from the left point that made its way through traffic and in for the goal.
O’Reilly added his second assist of the night just minutes later when he set up Catenacci in the slot with a pass from behind the net for anther power play goal just 11 seconds into the Binghamton penalty. Catenacci’s goal was his fifth of the season and his second in as many nights.
The teams were scoreless in the second period, though there was no shortage of chances. Catenacci’s bid for his second of the night rang off the post, while Lieuwen made several big saves on the penalty kill.
Binghamton got on the board with 6:14 remaining in the third period when an innocent looking wrist shot from the right point was deflected in the slot by Robinson and past Lieuwen, cutting the Rochester lead in half.
That would be it for Binghamton’s comeback attempt as Lieuwen shut the door the rest of the way to secure Rochester’s second straight win on the weekend.
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