Sens vs. Crunch 2/18/05 Articles: Crunch Fall to Senators
February 18, 2005

Posted by: Bob Howard
Credit: Syracuse Crunch.com

Crunch Fall to Senators

The I-81 rivalry between the Syracuse Crunch and Binghamton Senators heated up again Friday at the Onondaga County War Memorial at Oncenter.

Every time this season when the Senators and the Crunch play the game features two of the top prospects in hockey with Jason Spezza for Binghamton and Alexander Svitov for Syracuse the No. 2 and No. 3 players taken overall in the 2001 entry draft but this game came down to Binghamton goalie Billy Thompson and rookie sensation Brandon Bochenski.

Thompson stopped 38 shots and Bochenski scored the game-winning goal to lead the Senators to a 2-1 win.

The teams were scoreless after a penalty-filled first period that had referee Wes McCauley had out 102 minutes in penalties in the game's first four minutes. The teams settled down and combined for a total of 131 minutes for the game.

Josh Langfeld batted home Antoine Vermette's rebound to put the Senators on the board at 4:22 of the second.

Bochenski, the league's leading rookie goal scorer, notched his 22nd of the season by firing the puck from the slot into the top corner of the net after he waited for Syracuse goalie Andrew Penner to make a move in the crease nearly five minutes later.

Bochenski also is the rookie leader in points with 43 and leads all rookies in game-winning goals with six.

Syracuse (23-22-4-3) cut the Binghamton (29-19-4-4) lead to one before the third period was two minutes old. Jeff Panzer on the first Syracuse shot of the third period banged home Steven Goertzen's rebound but then it was all Thompson stopping 14 more Syracuse shots in the period.