Sens vs. Rochester 1/28/04 Articles: Senators edge Amerks, Shoddy defense ends in 2-on-1 rushes for goals
January 29, 2004

Posted by: Bob Howard
Credit: Democrat & Chronicle

Senators edge Amerks

Shoddy defense ends in 2-on-1 rushes for goals

By Kevin Oklobzija
Staff writer

(January 29, 2004) — Two months into the season, defenseman David Cullen was having a difficult time remembering the odd-man rushes the Rochester Americans had allowed.

That’s because there had been so few.

Now he and his teammates are having a difficult time remembering the days when they used to play sound, tight defense.

The Binghamton Senators scored a pair of goals off two-on-one breaks and former Amerk Denis Hamel helped set up Brooks Laich’s winning goal in a 3-2 victory Wednesday night at Blue Cross Arena at the War Memorial.

“We gave up a couple odd-man rushes and that killed us,” said Cullen, who scored both Amerks goals on power plays. “We’re not playing good defensively right now. We’re not making good reads and we’re not communicating.”

Consequently, they’re not winning. The Amerks’ winless streak stretched to five (0-3-2), and the schedule gets even tougher with the talented, speedy Milwaukee Admirals coming to town Friday night.

The Admirals blitzed the Amerks 5-1 in Wisconsin last week, using their speed to exploit a shoddy team defense. Binghamton did the same thing Wednesday.

Laich converted Christof Schubert’s pass off a two-on-one 45 seconds into the second period for the game’s first goal, and Hamel set up Josh Langfeld on a two-on-one for the go-ahead goal 8:32 into the third period.

“We’re talking about trying to tighten up and those are the things we have to correct,” said winger Jason Dawe, who helped set up both Cullen goals. “The odd-man rushes cost us the game.”

It’s becoming a trend.

“They’ve got some speed and we didn’t handle it well,” said coach Randy Cunneyworth. “We haven’t handled that for a bit now.’’

As a result they’re falling out of contention for the North Division title. The Amerks are third with 50 points, 10 behind Hamilton.

They certainly had chances to win on Wednesday in a game filled with big hits and big saves, but one watched by maybe 3,000 fans (5,613 was the announced crowd).

“That’s the smallest crowd I’ve seen in Rochester in ages,” said Senators coach John Paddock, whose AHL playing days date back to the late 1970s.

Those who did attend were entertained. With the score 1-1, rookie defenseman Nathan Paetsch moved into the slot and fired for the top left corner, but goalie Ray Emery deflected it away with his left arm at 7:05. Four minutes earlier, Emery snared Chris Taylor’s slap shot through traffic during an Amerks power play.

Binghamton then took advantage of the defensive breakdown to produce Langfeld’s goal at 8:32. When Laich redirected Peter Smrek’s chest-high point shot for a power-play goal at 11:11, the Senators led 3-1