BY JOHN SPARENBERG jsheynow@comcast.net
The Hershey Bears’ recent struggles, both in the win column and on the power play continued on Saturday night, with the Binghamton Senators scratching out a 5-2 victory over the Bears at Giant Center.
An obviously irritated head coach, Mark French, who could not blame his team’s effort Friday night in Wilkes-Barre, found plenty of blame to go around on Saturday night, and faulted his team’s effort as a major contributing factor in the loss.
The game took a wicked turn for the Bears early in the first period during a delayed penalty call against the Senators when Trevor Bruess was ruled to have interfered with the visiting team’s goaltender, Mike Brodeur. That sequence created a 4-on-4 situation in which the Senators scored a pair of goals 24 seconds apart to take a 2-0 lead.
The Bears responded with two late period goals, one from Darren Reid, his fourth of the season, and the other from Oskar Osala, his first of the season, to tie the game at two going into the first break.
The only goal during the second period came from Ryan Keller of the B-Sens, who blasted a shot past Bears’ netminder, Michal Neuvirth, from the top of the circle, giving the boys from Bingo a lead that they never relinquished.
Hershey launched 18 shots toward relief goalie, Andy Chiodo, in the second period, but could not find a way to get any behind the former Baby Penguin.
“I didn’t pull Brodeur. He was a little shaken up after taking a hit in the first,” said Binghamton head coach, former Bear Don Nachbaur. “Chiodo has been in that situation many times before, and I knew he could handle the job.”
Early in the third period, with Hershey on their last power play of the game, the unit was frustrated again for the 25th time in their last 26 chances; their frustration was compounded when Zack Smith slid a short-handed goal under Neuvirth who was making his fourth appearance of the season, but the first on Giant Center ice.
To add insult to injury, Tomas Kudelka netted his 2nd goal of the game into an empty net to seal the deal for the Senators.
