NEWARK, NJ - No more excuses.
With a week off to find out a solution to the early problems that the Binghamton Devils have faced, there was a glimpse of hope in the early going that soon was dismissed as the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton took advantage of some sloppy penalties by the Devils.
BDevils (2-5-1-1) raced to an early three-goal advantage in the opening period with two power-play goals by Danick Martel followed by Captain Ben Street, as this had all the makings of perhaps being their best start of the season so far. That hope would continue with the momentum flowing the Devils way as seldom used rookie Graeme Clarke recorded his first professional goal during a goal-mouth scramble as things were looking great halfway through the opening twenty minutes.
Unfortunately, that would be the end of the scoring for Binghamton as the Penguins scored the remaining six goals of the contest at RWJ Barnabas Health Hockey House on Saturday.
Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins (5-2-1-1) would remain active and responded with back-to-back PP goals to round up the first period as Binghamton netminder Gilles Senn (0-4-0-0, 4.07 GAA, 0.891 SV%) finished with 37 saves on the night. He could only do so much as Binghamton appeared deflated.
Penalities continued to mount against the BDevils and Wilkes-Barre had them on the ropes at the start of the second period. A pair of Pens goals by Jonathan Gruden, his first as a pro, followed by Jon Lizotte sealed the deal in the middle frame as the Pens controlled play, including a 17-3 shot advantage the rest of the night.
Another two goals by Wilkes-Barre’s Jan Drozg and Drew O’Connor rounded up the scoring in the final period for the Penguins, as they simply took advantage of a deflated Binghamton team after the opening twenty minutes.
Frustration to say the least. Devils have yet to put together a 60-minute effort. The talent is there, but, I don’t know. I vented some of my frustrations here recently.
LINE-UP, GAME #9
Martel - Street - Merkley, Foote - Boqvist - Clarke, St. Denis - Schnarr - Studenic, Thomson - Darcy - Zetterlund
Okhotiuk/White - Bahl/Walsh - Vukojevic/Jacobs
Senn - Cormier
SCRATCHES
Brodeur, Groleau, Irvine, Koules, Quenneville & Schmelzer
THREE STARS
Cam Lee (3a), Jonathan Gruden (1g, 1a), Graeme Clarke (1g)
GAME HIGHLIGHTS
Courtesy of SendtoNews
A LOOK FROM ABOVE