Binghamton Devils Light Up Utica Comets 7-2 Behind Nick Lappin’s Hatty

Binghamton Devils’ forwards helped the cause as Nick Lappin (3g, 1a), Blake Pietila (2g) and Kevin Rooney (3a) led the way in Sunday’s 7-2 romp over the visiting Utica Comets at The Floyd. Goaltender Eddie Lack earned the win with his 24 saves as the BDevils (19-30-6-3) ended their mini losing streak at two while increasing the slumping Comets (29-20-6-4) to six straight in the loss column while Utica is hampered with injuries.

It was a penalty filled affair with some chippiness and a few scraps, but it was the offense that was the star of the game and led the way to the highest goal output of the season at home and tied on the road back on Oct 13th in a 8-7 OT loss to the Rocket in Laval.

Photo provided by Alicia Strauch

Devils got on the board in the first as Pietila took a cross ice feed from Jan Mandat and found the short side of the net past Utica netminder Richard Bachman for a 1-0 lead. Then Andrew Cherniwchan would tie it on a breakaway with some nifty stick work near the net for his fourth of the season. Just 53 seconds later, the BDevils regained the lead with Ben Thomson’s charge towards the net before chipping the puck in by the blue paint over Bachman.

In the second period, Lappin scored the first of his three goals with his team-leading 21st at 1:29 on a soft snap shot from along the boards that had eyes to the back of the cage. Devils went up 4-1 when Pietila’s sharp wrister found the crossbar over Bachman for his 10th of the season as that was the end of Bachman’s night with Thatcher Demko as his replacement in goal.

Photo provided by Alicia Strauch

Comets responded and made it a two goal game once again when forward Reid Boucher scored his team-leading 25th with a quick shot off the faceoff that Lack never saw with a partial screen as the puck rattled off the post.

In the final period rookie forward Austin Cangelosi had the play of the game saving a goal with a swat of the puck behind Lack that kept it a two goal game. Seconds later the Devils took advantage of a Utica turnover deep in the offensive end as Lappin landed the puck up high, far side of Demko’s glove for a 5-2 game.

Binghamton would add two more goals by another one from Lappin and defenseman Brian Strait as the Devils defeated the Comets 7-2. Shots were in favor of the Devils 39-26.

Line-Ups

Forwards; Kearns-Kennedy-Lappin, Lucia-Rooney-Bertschy, Pietila-Mandat-Latta, Thomson-Cangelosi-Speers. Defensemen; Strait-Dyblenko, MacDonald-Santini, Kapla-Walman. In Goal; Eddie Lack. Back up; Ken Appleby. Scratches; Brandon Gignac (inj.), John Quenneville (inj.), Josh Jacobs, Brandon Baddock, Colton White and Nathan Bastian. Rooney, Kearns and Latta with the A’s.

Random Post Game Notes

• Game was the third in three days for both clubs but advantage Devils with a fresh Eddie Lack in net. He looked solid with several kick saves deep in the crease and fighting off some rust and with Binghamton he has a record of 2-2-2-0, 2.12 GAA, 0.916 SV%.
• Latta was involved in a big scrum near the players bench halfway through the third and was roughed up by rookie forward Zack MacEwen as the two emerged towards center ice. Latta was getting tossed around as one of the linesman wanted to end the exchange, in which the cagey veteran told him to back off in so many words. He ended up landing some rights to the face of MacEwen which sent him to the ice as the fans erupted with approval.
• 64 minutes in penalties called to Utica and 27 for Bingo with the team going 1/10 on the power play.
• A gutsy win for the home team with the largest goal output of the season at The Floyd to take two points out of a possible six on the weekend. Not sure what to make of the three goaltender situation as Mackenzie Blackwood might be headed back to Adirondack of the ECHL at some point this week.
• Lappin was all fired up as he and others were greeted with loud fans at the player’s entrance at the start of the third with a 4-2 lead. Lappin turned back to yell his approval at several fans which fired them up to another level. Good to see player/fan interactions with a common goal.

Three Stars

#1.) Nick Lappin (3g, 1a), #2.) Blake Pietila (2g), #3.) Kevin Rooney (3a)

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Another three-in-three weekend coming up for the BDevils with the first two in Binghamton against the WBS Penguins on Friday followed by the Hershey Bears on Saturday.