Binghamton Devils Come Up Short In OT

Devils and Bruins participated in a physical, yet chippy style of game that could have gone either way before Bruins’ forward Colton Hargrove skated through and around three Devils’ players near the slot and lifted the puck over goaltender Mackenzie Blackwood for the game winner at 1:22 into overtime to send Providence to a 2-1 victory over Binghamton (6-8-2-0) on the annual Thanksgiving Eve affair Wednesday.

Just seconds beforehand, it looked as though the Devils would come up on top but couldn’t quite connect to beat Bruins’ starter Zane McIntyre with several opportunities within the three-on-three action.

The two teams each scored a shorthanded goal as the Devils got on the board first when Kevin Rooney burned down along the side boards and landed a shot top shelf past McIntyre for a 1-0 lead halfway through the first period.

In the second, tempers would run overboard with some physical play which featured two fights. The first between Ben Thomson and Sena Acolatse in which it appeared Thomson got the better end of the deal with some punches that connected. In the other battle it was just the opposite, between two players holding on to one another as Blake Pietila came in against rookie defenseman Jeremy Lauzon which sent him hard to the ice. Enter Tommy Cross with gloves thrown but no damages would occur except some heated discussions.

Providence’s shorty was put up on a similar play as Rooney’s when forward Chris Porter deked Blackwood to go five hole for his first of the season that put his team in a 1-1 tie at 17:11 in the second.

From there, it was a lot of back and forth action in the third period as Binghamton repeatedly crashed the net but couldn’t put one past McIntyre, and Blackwood did his magic on the other end that sent the game into overtime.

However, in the end Binghamton earned a point with a much better performance than the previous meeting between the two clubs, which resulted in a 4-1 Bruins win highlighted (low-lighted?) with the Devils’ season low 14 shots on net back on Oct 27.

Line-Ups

Forwards; Blandisi-Kearns-Lappin, Pietila-Rooney-Bastian, Thomson-Mandat-Gignac, -Cangelosi-Speers. Defensemen; Strait-Jacobs, Kapla-Loov, MacDonald-Dyblenko, White. In Goal; Mackenzie Blackwood Back up; Ken Appleby Scratches; John Quenneville (inj.), Tim Kennedy, (inj.) Brandon Baddock and Ryan Kujawinski (inj.). Lappin, Pietila and Strait with the A’s.

Post Game Notes

• Devils went with 11F and 7D which I believe was for the first time this season.
• Providence entered the game second in the league with 2.40 goals allowed per contest, Binghamton 18th at 3.13.
• It got rather nasty in the middle frame on both sides with hits to Brian Strait from a high elbow to the chin by Austin Czarnik. Soon after Blake Speers was run hard to the glass by Acolatse that sent him off to the locker room, but he later returned. And Acolatse was up to no good with his antics at the end after the whistle with the teams coming off the ice, but not before Blackwood with an inadvertent trip in the crease to Acolatse.
• Hargrove made it look easy in the OT period as he simply skated around Pietila, Viktor Loov and Bracken Kearns in and around the slot. Like I mentioned early, Devils came close in winning it as they started Nick Lappin, Rooney and Jacob MacDonald.
• Shots ended up in favor of the Devils for the third straight game 28-24, and were only penalized twice compared to four for the Bruins. Baby steps but it’s been happening thanks to the coaching staff and their effort’s to right the ship early on.

Three Stars

#1 Colton Hargrove (1g), #2 Chris Porter (1g), #3 Kevin Rooney (1g).

Video Highlights

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Upcoming Games

The Devils are once again in the middle of three games in four days with a home-and-home series with Rochester on Friday and Saturday.