Sens vs. Penguins 4/22/05 Articles: Coach fumes at referee after defeat
April 23, 2005

Posted by: Bob Howard
Credit: Patrick Williams of Times Leader.com

Coach fumes at referee after defeat

Therrien feels Pens, who had trouble killing penalties, didn’t get fair shake on calls.

By PATRICK WILLIAMS Special to Times Leader

“That referee tried to do everything to give the Senators all the breaks that they need. It put us behind the eight-ball right away.”
Michel Therrien Penguins coach

BINGHAMTON, N.Y. –- The general mood in the Penguins dressing room was a generally optimistic one, despite the result.

Binghamton waxed Wilkes-Barre/Scranton 5-2 on Friday in Game 1 of a Calder Cup Eastern Division semifinal matchup at Broome County Veterans Memorial Arena.

That mood, though, will be a lot more somber tonight if the Penguins do not make serious adjustments to counter the Senators’ firewagon attack. Game 2 of the best-of-seven series is at 7 p.m. in Binghamton.

And Penguins coach Michel Therrien broke out his trusty rant and assigned blame to referee Harry Dumas, who is often the target of AHL coaches’ frustration.

Dumas generally calls a very tight game, and the Penguins had trouble adjusting to the officiating in surrendering six power plays to the Senators.

“I don’t think the score indicated the type of game that we played,” Therrien began. “I thought we played pretty solid. We took some bad penalties.

“We asked before the series that we hoped the referee would be fair. That referee tried to do everything to give the Senators all the breaks that they need. It put us behind the eight-ball right away.

Therrien had further words for Dumas.

“It’s very rare that you see the referee giving (trouble) to the players, yelling at them, and even the linesmen yelling at our bench. I think (the officials) were panicking.

“Right now we just hope that it’s not going to be this way the rest of the series or we have no chance,” Therrien concluded, refusing to cite any calls in particular to which he objected.

A better penalty kill would be a good start. The best antidote to the situation would have been an effective penalty kill, which was nowhere to be found on a night in which the Senators’ dangerous power play converted twice on the six chances.

“You can’t have guys like (Jason) Spezza and (Antoine) Vermette out there on the power play,” the Penguins’ Matt Murley said. “If we only have two or three to kill, we’ll be all right.”

Two Penguins infractions from two of their more mild-mannered skaters set the game’s tone from the get-go. Shane Endicott took an elbowing call 13 seconds off the opening face-off in a skirmish with Spezza. Then 1:16 after the Endicott call, Dumas sent off Ryan Whitney for a high stick in a crowd in front of Marc-Andre Fleury’s net.

Thirty-four seconds of the two-man advantage was all the Senators needed, with Josh Langfeld converting on the man-advantage for a 1-0 Senators lead.

Binghamton used the two quick strikes -- Langfeld’s and a Jesse Fibiger goal -- and a handful of top-notch Ray Emery stops in the opening 10 minutes to wrestle the game’s momentum and dictate the sort of hockey that the teams would play the rest of the night.

Binghamton’s ultra-balanced attack used goals from Langfeld, Fibiger, Spezza, Vermette and Charlie Stephens, more than enough offense for Emery, who finished with 33 saves. Murley and Michel Ouellet had the only Penguins goals.

“Ray Emery was very good,” Therrien said.

And Fleury, who finished with 24 saves on 29 Binghamton shots?

“Not very good,” Therrien replied.

Grit got the Penguins on the scoreboard 1:29 after the first intermission. The Penguins down, 2-0, Murley withstood Binghamton punishment in front of Emery and re-directed Drew Fata’s left-point shot in to cut the Binghamton lead in half.

Spezza can score the pretty goals, but he can get his nose dirty down low as well. Kris Beech took an elbowing penalty in the later stages of the second period to set up Binghamton’s fifth power play. Fifty-four seconds in, Spezza swatted in a loose rebound in the crease before Fleury could scramble into position.

Stephens added further emphasis in the third period, waltzing in on Fleury and slipping it by him for a 5-1 game.

Much too late, Ouellet made it 5-2 just 33 seconds after the Stephens goal.

Through it all, the Penguins remained upbeat.

“We came up here to win one game,” Murley said, “and we still have a chance to do that.”