Sens vs. Bruins 2/21/04 Articles: Gutsy effort by B-Sens; Binghamton beats Bruins with 13 skaters
February 22, 2004

Posted by: Bob Howard
Credit: Scott Lauber of Press Connects.com

Gutsy effort by B-Sens

Binghamton beats Bruins with 13 skaters

BY SCOTT LAUBER

Press & Sun-Bulletin

BINGHAMTON -- Thirteen was lucky Saturday night for the Binghamton Senators.

Ravaged by call-ups to injury-riddled Ottawa, injuries of their own and AHL suspensions to two regulars, the Senators dressed only 14 skaters against the Providence Bruins and were left with 13 midway through the first period when Alexandre Giroux earned a game misconduct for, of all things, not having his sweater tied down during a fight.

But in perhaps their grittiest performance of the season, those 13 banded together with goalie Ray Emery for a rousing 2-1 victory that kept alive a four-game unbeaten streak before an appreciative sell-out crowd of 4,717 at the Broome County Veterans Memorial Arena.

"You play some drawn-out overtime games in the playoffs, but for any regular-season game, that's as gutty an effort as I can remember," said coach John Paddock, who's been behind a bench for more than 900 in the AHL. "They dug down and played a smart game."

Nobody was smarter than Rob Ray, the wise-cracking 14-year NHL enforcer on the second leg of a five-game conditioning stint before joining the Ottawa Senators. Forced into penalty-killing and power-play situations he hasn't experienced in years, Ray's first goal since Dec. 19, 2001, proved to be the game-winner.

Brought out of retirement eight days ago, Ray, 35, redirected Andy Hedlund's point shot past 19-year-old Bruins goalie Hannu Toivonen with 3:44 remaining in the second period. On his next shift, Ray had a breakaway (a breakaway!) but was hooked from behind by defenseman Ed Campbell before he could get off a shot.

"I heard No. 18 (David Hymovitz) yelling at me from behind," said Ray, who later joked the failed breakaway was merely a drop-pass to Hymovitz. "But I said I'm just going to keep going."

That could've been the Senators' motto on this night.

Hymovitz and other wingers like Arpad Mihaly, who scored their first goal, took shifts at center because Charlie Stephens was the only natural pivot the Senators had, and defenseman Christoph Schubert moved up to wing to give the team three complete forward lines.

And then there was Ray, playing in only his second game in nine months and logging more ice time than he could've imagined.

"John's awesome," Ray said. "He's giving me an opportunity most coaches wouldn't. He's giving me a chance to do things I haven't done in 10 years. Guys say, 'Oh, it's the minors.' But when you're in a game, your emotions are going, and you don't care where you are. A lot of guys would give anything to do this."

Said Hymovitz: "They probably looked at our bench before the game and saw we were short guys, and they probably took us for granted. But everybody battled their butt off. It was a good win."