Binghamton Devils Shutout 3-0 In Lackluster Performance

ALLENTOWN, PA - The Binghamton Devils waited until the final five minutes to attempt to make up for an uninspiring performance early on, but it was not enough to recover from as they fell short to the hands of the Lehigh Valley Phantoms by a score of 3-0 on Saturday at PPL Center.

This was not even a close game as the final results would perhaps otherwise indicate based on shots alone, as the Phantoms simply skated circles around Binghamton for the majority of the night, while the Devils looked and played tired hockey.

The lone player highlight would be goaltender Gilles Senn, as he kept his team in it with 27 saves in his second outing of the season. In contrast, the opposing netminder was rarely tested in the first 40 minutes however, Zane McIntyre held his own in the third period stopping all 15 shots he saw that earned him 2nd Star of the Game honors.

Lehigh Valley Phantoms (3-0-1-0) came out flying in the first period that set the tone and took an early lead by a tap-in from forward Zayde Wisdom, his first of two. Devils were flat and it showed as they could not keep up with the intensity that the Phantoms brought while being outshot 13-5, including at one point a 10-1 margin midway through the period.

It remained the same in the middle frame as Binghamton (2-2-0-1) coughed up two more goals on some poor performances that netted with back-to-back goals by Max Willman and Wisdom once again.

In the final period, the Devils found their legs and outshot Lehigh Valley 15-6 but the writing was already on the wall with the Phantoms on the winning side despite a dismal effort earlier on from Bingo.

LINE-UP, GAME #5

Seney - Street - Foote, Studenic - St. Denis - Merkley, Thomson - Darcy - Zetterlund, Martel - Schnarr - Clarke

Bahl/Jacobs - Vukojevic/Walsh - Okhotiuk/Quenneville

Senn - Cormier

SCRATCHES

Sissons, Rivera, Irvine, Schmelzer, White, Groleau & Koules

TRANSACTIONS

Brandon Gignac sent down to ECHL while Jesper Boqvist sat out serving his last of a 2 game suspension prior to this season.

POSTGAME NOTES

• A recent trend after this and a Hershey loss on Wednesday is the BDevils’ lack of shots. It is glaring as the first two periods, per game, showed just 5 for each of the first two periods. Yes, a total of 20 shots for 4 periods. Ouch.
• Senn played great, once again, and continues to lead the path on the way to parent club New Jersey.
• Ryan Schmelzer is out with a lower-body injury could miss a significant amount of time. Nick Merkley and David Quenneville made their season debuts for Binghamton.
• There isn’t anything else to report on player-wise, just need to flush this one down and be better prepared out of the gate for the next one. Embarrassing to say the least.

THREE STARS

Zayde Wisdom (2g), Zane McIntyre (25 svs), Max Willman (1g)

GAME HIGHLIGHTS

A LOOK FROM ABOVE