Inside the East Division: A look into tonight's games, roster update, East division standings and more!
February 21, 2004

Posted by: Bob Howard
Credit: Exclusive to Binghamton Hockey.net

Welcome to "Inside the East Division", an exclusive feature to Binghamton Hockey.net.

On tap for this edition will be the AHL schedule for tonight's games, how the East teams played last night, a breakdown of the East Division games and how the standings can be affected, key's for tonight's Senators/Bruins game & a Senators roster update.

Tonight's AHL Schedule: 26 of 28 teams are playing tonight in the AHL with Toronto & Utah sitting idle. Games start tonight at 6:00 PM with San Antonio visiting Manitoba & 4 separate games getting under way at 7:35 PM EST. All the East division teams are playing tonight with pivotal divisional games being played with the Phantoms at Bears & the Admirals in Bridgeport to take on the Sound Tigers. The Senators, Penguins & River Rats are all facing teams from outside the East division. All the East division teams are in italics.

San Antonio @ Manitoba Game time is: 6:00 PM
Houston @ Chicago Game time is: 7:00 PM
Cincinnati @ Hamilton Game time is: 7:00 PM
Philadelphia @ Hershey Game time is: 7:00 PM
Providence @ Binghamton Game time is: 7:05 PM
Norfolk @ Bridgeport Game time is: 7:05 PM
Manchester @ Portland Game time is: 7:05 PM
Milwaukee @ Grand Rapids Game time is: 7:30 PM
Wilkes-Barre @ Syracuse Game time is: 7:30 PM
Worcester @ Hartford Game time is: 7:35 PM
Albany @ Rochester Game time is: 7:35 PM
Lowell @ Springfield Game time is: 7:35 PM
Cleveland @ St. John's Game time is: 7:35 PM

For the East Division: Last night's action for East division teams was not so successful as 3 out of the 6 teams playing lost their games. In the battle of two first place teams, the Hartford Wolfpack shut out the East division leading Bridgeport Sound Tigers, 3-0. It was the 14th team shutout for the Wolfpack and a new AHL record for team shutouts. This was also Jason LaBarbera's 11th shutout this year for the Wolfpack and fellow teammate Phil Osaer has 3 shutouts on the 2003-04 season. The Wilkes-Barre Scranton Penguins & Albany River Rats skated to a 3-3 tie in the Pepsi Arena in Albany, New York. Wilkes-Barre scored two of their goals on the powerplay from teammates Toby Petersen and Shane Endicott. The Lowell Lock Monsters rookie all star Mike Zigomanis scored the game winner in the 3rd period to put the Lock Monsters past the Norfolk Admirals, 3-2. Philadelphia extended their win streak over the Hershey Bears with a 3-0 shutout win behind the Phantoms goalie Neil Little who saved all 29 Hershey shots.

The East division standings only changed a bit after last night's action. Both Albany (7th place) and Wilkes-Barre (6th place) gained one point for their last night tie. The Penguins sit four points behind fifth place Binghamton and Albany is 15 points out of fifth place and the final spot for the playoffs. The Binghamton Senators were idle last night and doing so only lost one of their five points that they led over the sixth place Penguins. With Norfolk's loss last night, the Admirals did not extend their lead to three over the Senators for fourth place in the East. Philadelphia extended their two-point lead to four points over Hershey after the 3-0 shutout win in Hershey last night. Bridgeport's loss and Phantoms win brought the two teams closer as the Sound Tigers now only hold a three point lead over the Phantoms.

East Standings:
Bridgeport 71
Philadelphia 68
Hershey 64
Norfolk 59
Binghamton 58
Wilkes-Barre 54
Albany 43

Four teams will play each other from the East division with Philadelphia and Hershey playing each other for the second time in as many games. Philadelphia has won all nine games vs. the Hershey Bears this year and will look to extend their second place lead to six points with a win tonight in Hershey. Norfolk, winners of their last 5 out of 6 games head into East division leading Bridgeport hoping to extend its fourth place lead over the Binghamton Senators. Bridgeport and Norfolk split a weekend double header the last time the teams played each other as the Admirals have become more competitive over their past six games. Last place Albany will head into Rochester for action, as Wilkes-Barre will take their winning prayers into Syracuse to battle the Crunch. The Providence Bruins will come to the Broome County Veterans Memorial Arena for their only visit to Binghamton to face off with the Senators at a 7:05 game time.

Senator's Need: The Senators need to win tonight and loss by the Admirals to move solely into fourth place in the East division. The game tonight is the first game of a 7 game in 9 days stretch that will test the Senators who have had many rosters changes over the past week. A Wilkes-Barre loss will keep the Senators fifth place standing a 4-point or more lock for the Senators.

Key's to tonight's game: The Senators will not have Brooks Laich, traded to the Washington Capitols, Brad Tapper, still out due to a Grade 3 concussion, Chris Kelly, who has a broken knee cap, in their line-up tonight so a returning Serge Payer from Ottawa, Denis Hamel and Charlie Stephens will have to be on their games tonight to break the scoring drought the team has suffered over the past 4 consecutive periods and 2 overtime periods. Billy Thompsin and Ray Emery have been good the past two games with Emery shutting out the Crunch on Wendesday in a 0-0 tie in Syracuse. Tonight the Senators net-minders will be facing Providence's Andre Savage, who has the Bruins team lead for points with 34 (12 + 22). The Bruins have two net minders that have impressive Goals Against Averages, Tim Thomas has a 2.06 GAA with a 12-9-5 record and Hannu Toivonen has a 2.27 GAA and a 10-11-4 record for the Bruins. NHL veteran enforcer Rob Ray will be making his second of five conditioning game appearances for the Senators tonight and will make an impact on this game as the Senators sometimes lack a physical force on the ice.

Senators Roster Update: Serge Payer, on re-call in Ottawa, is expected to re-join the Binghamton Senators tonight for the game vs. the Bruins. Winger, Jody Hull is expected to re-join the team on the ice in about 10 days after returning from abdominal surgery. Brad Tapper is also expected to return from his concussion either Sunday or Monday while the Senators are on the road.

After tonight's AHL action come back to Binghamton Hockey.net for an updated East Division standings and a Senators/Bruins boxscore and articles about the game.

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