Sens vs. Admirals 2/28/04 Preview: Ads & Sens go at it again tonight at the Scope
February 28, 2004

Posted by: Bob Howard
Credit: Binghamton Hockey.net

The Binghamton Senators and Norfolk Admirals face off tonight in the second game of a two game set at the Scope in Norfolk, Virginia. Tonight's game will be the fifth meeting of this year with one more game in Binghamton (April 9th) and another back to back set of games in Norfolk on April 2nd and April 3rd. With the win last night by the Admirals the season series is now tied at two games a piece.

Last night's game was total domination on the Admirals part holding the Senators to just 4 shots on goal in the first two periods of play. In the first two periods the Admirals were able to get 28 of their own shots on goal including getting three of those shots past Sens net-minder, Ray Emery. Carsen Germyn scored on the power play in the 1st period receiving the feed from teammates Yorick Treille and Jason Morgan at the 9:01 mark. In the 2nd period Quintin Laing scored his first of two goals in the game from Lasse Kukkonen and Brandin Cote at 8:43. The last goal Emery allowed in the game came from a power play shot that Jason Morgan sent towards the over worked Emery at the 9:25 mark of the 2nd period. The only bright spot for the Senators came from Arpad Mihaly who sent a shot past Craig Anderson from Bryson Busniuk just 4:49 into the 3rd period. Emery was pulled after the 2nd period for back-up Billy Thompson. Thompson allowed three goals in just the 20 minutes of work including one power play goal after Bryson Busniuk received a 5-minute major for high sticking. Scoring in that power play was Lasse Kukkonen at 15:09 and just after the power play ended, Carsen Germyn sent a shot past Thompson putting the game way out of reach at that point, 6-1. Quintin Laing had scored his second of the game at the 5:59 mark just 58 seconds after the Senators had scored their only goal. Craig Anderson only saw 13 total shots come his way from the slumping Senators.

The Senators and the Admirals only played each other four times last year with Binghamton getting the best of the series with 3 wins, 1 loss and no ties. With four games played this year the two year series sits at the Senators winning 5 and the Admirals winning 3 games.

Binghamton, losers of their last 4 games are 1-4-1 in their last six games. Their one victory in those six games came February 21st vs. the Providence Bruins (2-1). The one tie was vs. Syracuse on February 18th (0-0). Four straight losses have followed since that time starting in Springfield on Sunday (5-3), Monday in Manchester (2-0) three days ago in Binghamton vs. Wilkes-Barre (4-3) & last night vs. the Admirals (6-1).

The Admirals last six games have seen the team win five out of their last six games. The only loss for the Admirals in that six game stretch came to them on the road in Lowell vs. the Lock Monsters (3-2). Wins in the last six have come vs. Wilkes-Barre (4-2), Providence (3-1), Albany (4-2), Bridgeport (2-1) & last night vs. the Senators (6-1).

Last night was the beginning of a 7 game home stretch for the Admirals. From tonight's game vs. the Senators until March 28th the Admirals only have one road game in a 12 game stretch.

The Senators play the next five games on the road before they return home to the Arena on March 10th vs. Rochester. After tonight vs. the Admirals the Senators will then travel to Hershey tomorrow, Wilkes-Barre on Wednesday, Rochester next Friday and then to Bridgeport a week from Sunday to complete the rest of what was a six game road trip that started last night in Norfolk.

Though he did not score a point last night in Norfolk, Denis Hamel continues to be the Senators top point getter with 50 points (22+28). Last night's loss puts Senators goalie, Ray Emery at 18-17-5 on the season with three shut outs on the year. Emery’s goals against average going into tonight’s game sits at 2.37 and he has a .924 save percentage.

With another assist last night vs. the Sens, d-man Marty Wiford has 34 points for Norfolk as he has assisted on 31 goals for the Admirals and has scored 3 goals for the team. Craig Anderson received the win last night and leads the team with a 11-13-0 record, recording no ties and 3 shut outs on the season. Anderson has a 2.08 goals against average, has made 541 saves in 24 games played with a .920 save percentage.

The Admirals (27-26-4-5) win last night placed them one point (63 points) away from 3rd place Hershey (64 points) in the East division. The Senators (26-26-6-2) loss allowed Wilkes-Barre (24-21-7-5) to tie the Senators with 60 points for fifth place and the final spot in the running to make it to the Calder Cup Playoffs.

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

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