BDevils Suffer Tough Loss To Springfield

I don’t often make it a habit of blaming the officiating after a loss, but tonight it was so bad it probably cost the BDevils a win. And I realize it’s a moot point this deep in the season, but this can’t be ignored any longer.

Being up by a goal against Springfield midway through the third period, an apparent penalty called against Brandon Baddock negated a Binghamton goal on the play by Egor Sharangovich that would have put the Devils up 3-1. The problem I’m having is what the replay on the boards showed afterward.

Defenseman Julian Melchiori was actually diving for the puck as he was in the process of turning towards the shooter. The stick of Baddock was close to Melchiori’s leg but never made contact. The ref made a gut reaction instead of actually seeing what transpired and called a tripping penalty.

The result? A Springfield power play goal by Paul Thompson 13 seconds after that tied it at two apiece. The Thunderbirds then went ahead when Sebastian Repo scored the game-winner en route to a 3-2 victory over the BDevils. At the very least, the game could’ve gone into overtime, or perhaps a shootout with different, or even the same results, a loss.

But the Officiating has been atrocious this season. All you have to do is react to a stick up high to the shoulder and violently tilt your head back like it made contact to the face, and you’ll get the call, which also happened tonight. (But let’s not have any fights break out. We gotta jump in to prevent that from happening. Ugh!)

Eric Tangradi opened up the scoring in the first period on a snipe past goaltender Chris Driedger for his ninth of the season after a goal-mouth scramble with netminder Evan Cormier.

After ex-Devil Jean-Sebastien Dea tied it in the second, Binghamton regained the lead on a shot by John Edwardh that had eyes for the back of the net with Tangradi near the crease protecting the puck.

With Binghamton missing ten regulars in the lineup, this should have been good enough for a potential win. I’ll take my mulligan tonight and won’t complain again about losing out to the officiating as I’ve had my fill for the season. BDevils outshot the TBirds 29-26 but lose their fourth straight.

Line-Up, Game #61

Forwards: Tangradi - Schmelzer - Popugaev, Gignac - Seney - Edwardh, Baddock - Sharangovich - Saracino, Krushelnyski - Ward - Kurker

Defensemen: Murphy/Jacobs, White/Ramage, Bergin/Gryba

In Goal: Evan Cormier, Cam Johnson

Scratches: Brian Strait, Eddie Lack, Blake Speers, Tariq Hammond and Marian Studenic

Post Game Notes

• Speers and Studenic out with injuries as Hammond was a healthy scratch. Devils signed Sam Kurker to a PTO earlier in the week.
• Former BDevils’ D Jacob MacDonald returned for the first time after leaving the organization during the course of the off-season. It looks like he hasn’t missed a beat offensively with 13 goals, 24 assists in 56 games for the Thunderbirds.
• Binghamton played well enough to deserve the two points, not that it matters in the standings but the boys played hard and gave it a 60-minute effort with the patch-like line-up they have.
• Colton White kissed the end boards pretty hard as he was shoved by JSD and remained on the ice for several minutes. His eventual return occurred in the second period, which was a surprise on the way things have transpired as of late. Might as well note adding to the theme of this recap, no penalty called on the play in what looked to be a 5-minute boarding major against Dea.
• This was the best game so far in 9 outings for rookie Nikita Popugaev as he registered his first point on NA soil with an assist to the Tangradi’s goal in the opening period. He also made some nice passes and a quick shot from in-between the hash marks in the 3rd.
• Brett Seney doesn’t back down as he was seen mixing it up exchanging several jabs in the blue paint area with Ryan Horvat in the second period.
• Driedger exchanged brief pleasantries with recently traded for Alex Krushelnyski during warm-ups at center ice, as the two were teammates for the 2016-’17 Binghamton Senators.

Three Stars

#1. Paul Thompson (1g, 1a), #2. Sebastian Repo (1g), #3. John Edwardh (1g)

Video Highlights

Upcoming Games

Binghamton kicks off a three-in-three weekend after Friday with the TBirds as Rochester pays a visit on Saturday, part of a mini two-game series with the Amerks that ends in Rochester on Sunday afternoon.