3rd Period Effort Not Enough In Binghamton Devils Loss

And the losses keep on piling up for the BDevils.

The BDevils showed up in the first and the final ten minutes of the third period as the Utica Comets defeated Binghamton 3-1 on Friday at Floyd L. Maines Veterans Memorial Arena for their seventh loss in the last eight games. I’m not going to harp on what’s been said in the past, but things are still broken in Binghamton with the lack of another 60 minute effort from the club.

Comets jumped to a 1-0 lead at 16:40 in the first when forward Reid Boucher scored his team-leading 22nd goal of the season as he skated into the offensive zone towards the net and potted the puck short side, off the glove of Devils’ goaltender Mackenzie Blackwood, who was fresh off his recent call-up for New Jersey. Shots were close 11-9 Utica as both clubs had several missed scoring chances.

Photo provided by Alicia Strauch

In the second, Binghamton was flat with missed passes and broken plays while players lost their edge falling to the ice while putting up only two shots on Comets’ netminder Richard Bachman, who finished with 22 saves. While the BDevils mishaps continued, Utica increased their lead to two when Michael Carcone followed through with a backhanded shot through a mass of players in the crease for a power play tally and his tenth, as Blackwood was tested often on 16 Utica shots in that middle frame.

Binghamton would stumble on but put a late push in the final seven minutes of the third period as forward Bracken Kearns broke loose and made it a one goal game with a dipsy-doo type of move on a partial breakaway that beat Bachman to shed some new light, in what had been a dismal night of hockey at The Floyd.

As the decent sized crowd came to life, the Comets ended any chance for the Devils to tie it as they got an empty-netter from Darren Archibald with 67 seconds left for the final blow as Utica increased their lead to 3-1 while fans made their way early to the exits.

Line-Ups

Forwards; Quenneville-Kennedy-Bastian, Kearns-Rooney-Lappin, Thomson-Pietila-Speers, Baddock-Penny-Mandat. Defensemen; Strait-Jacobs, Loov-MacDonald, Kapla-Dyblenko. In Goal; Mackenzie Blackwood. Back up; Colin Stevens. Scratches; Austin Cangelosi (inj.), Brandon Gignac (inj.), Michael Latta (inj.), Eddie Lack (inj.), Kevin Morris and Colton White. Kearns, Loov and Rooney with the A’s.

Random Post Game Notes

• Good news; Eddie Lack is down in NJ rehabbing and is 1-2 weeks away with a lower body injury and, he has resumed some light skating. Bad news; Mike Latta is out indefinitely with a lower body injury and was sent home.
• Blake Speers returned to the line-up and seemed to be in rather good shape as his injury was more related of an upper body type as compared to lower, but he didn’t come through like the rest of the team that also failed upon with a lack of producing points. Speers has a disappointing 4 goals and 4 assists in 33 games.
• Binghamton had their chances, but seemed to grip their sticks to tight, especially on a power play midway through the third period with too many passes being made and not enough shots on net, looking for that perfect set-up.
• But the outcome could have been very easily 6-0 as the Comets had Blackwood beat on different occasions, including an odd man rush with a Utica player wide open but miffed on the shot from inside the circle.

Three Stars

#1.) Reid Boucher (1g), #2.) Michael Carcone (1g), #3.) Bracken Kearns (1g)

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Binghamton Devils are on the road Saturday against the WBS Penguins in the final game before the AHL All-Star break.