BINGHAMTON, NY – The Rochester Americans and Binghamton Senators traded goals over the first 40 minutes of Saturday night’s game at the Floyd L. Maines Veterans Memorial Arena and entered the third period tied 3-3, but the B-Sens pulled away in the final period to defeat Rochester, 5-3. With the loss, the Amerks move to 31-28-2-1 on t
he season and will return home to host the Providence Bruins on Sunday at 5:05 p.m.
Justin Bailey scored two goals and added an assist to lead Rochester with three points on the night while Chad Ruhwedel, who made his NHL season debut with the Buffalo Sabres on Friday night, also scored a goal. Former Senators Cole Schneider and Alex Guptill each recorded an assist in their first game back in Binghamton. Goaltender Linus Ullmark stopped 26 of 31 shots in the loss.
Binghamton center and former Amerk Phil Varone finished with a game-high four points on two goals and two assists while another ex-Amerk, Jerome Leduc, also picked up a goal. Travis Ewanyk and Mike Borkowski rounded out the goal scoring and goaltender Chris Driedger turned aside 32 of 35 shots to earn the win.
The hot hand of Bailey delivered the game’s first goal with the Amerks on the power-play just beyond the halfway point of the first period. Guptill’s initial offering from the left of the crease was blocked away by Driedger and the rebound was soon collected by Fredrik Claesson behind the Binghamton net. Claesson snapped his stick in half on the clearing attempt and the puck would eventually make its way back to Guptill, who quickly centered to Bailey for the rookie forward’s second goal in as many games and a 1-0 Rochester lead.
A five-goal second period began with Bailey striking again 6:27 into the middle frame after a fortuitous bounce saw its way through Driedger and into the Binghamton net. With the teams skating four per side, Bailey carried the puck into the Senators zone before his pass intended for Nick Baptiste caromed off the stick of Senators defenseman Chris Carlisle and in.
Rochester’s two-goal advantage would be short-lived, however, as Binghamton scored three straight goals three different ways to overcome the deficit before eventually taking the lead. Varone, who recorded four points in the previous meeting between the two teams earlier this week, ignited the run at 9:03 when he tapped home his 16th of the season on the power-play from the top of the crease to bring the Senators within a goal. Max McCormick and Jason Akeson each earned assists on the goal.
Leduc tied it up at 2-2 just 4:04 later when the former Amerk unleashed a soft wrist shot from inside the blueline that eluded Ullmark and snuck inside the left post. Ewanyk then provided the go-ahead goal a short time later, converting a slick centering feed from Varone just 12 seconds after Binghamton was caught with too many men on the ice.
The Amerks, though, were quick to answer, needing all of 70 seconds to make it a 3-3 game. Bailey stepped into a blast that was initially met by the right pad of Driedger, but Ruhwedel was there to clean up the rebound, sending it to the top of net to with 1:37 remaining in the period.
The Senators tacked on two more goals in the third period to reclaim the lead for good. Varone added his second of the night to cap an end-to-end rush at 6:59 and Borkowski followed up his own rebound at 14:20 to put the game out of reach.
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