Inside the East Division: A look into tonight's games, last night's action, East Standings & more
February 28, 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/Admirals game.

Tonight's AHL Schedule: Manitoba & Grand Rapids are the only two teams not playing tonight. That leaves 26 of the 28 teams playing in 13 games starting with Wilkes-Barre @ Toronto in a face off at 4:00 PM EST. All seven East division teams are playing tonight with four teams going head to head tonight. Albany travels to Hershey, Binghamton finishes its two game trip to Norfolk while Philadelphia plays in Milwaukee, Bridgeport hosts Providence & the first game of day is the Pens playing in Toronto. The East division teams are all in italics.

Wilkes-Barre @ Toronto Game time is: 4:00 PM
Cincinnati @ Chicago Game time is: 7:00 PM
Rochester @ Cleveland Game time is: 7:00 PM
Syracuse @ Hamilton Game time is: 7:00 PM
Albany @ Hershey Game time is: 7:00 PM
San Antonio @ Houston Game time is: 7:00 PM
Philadelphia @ Milwaukee Game time is: 7:00 PM
Providence @ Bridgeport Game time is: 7:05 PM
Lowell @ Hartford Game time is: 7:05 PM
Binghamton @ Norfolk Game time is: 7:30 PM
Utah @ Manchester Game time is: 7:35 PM
Worcester @ Springfield Game time is: 7:35 PM
Portland @ St. John's Game time is: 7:35 PM

For the East division: Last night's action started with a 3-1 win for the Sound Tigers over the Albany River Rats. Bridgeport's Jeff Hamilton and Rob Collins hooked up twice in the third period for two goals against the Rat's goalie, Ari Ahonen. The Phantoms and the Mighty Ducks went to a 2-2 tie in Cincinnati. Admiral teammates, Quintin Laing & Carsen Germyn scored twice in a dominating 6-1 victory over the Binghamton Senators. It was the fourth straight loss for the Senators. A team also on a losing streak lost again last night as Rochester beat Hershey, 4-3. Hershey’s Eric Perrin had three assists in the game and Pascal Trepanier scored two power play goals in the losing effort for the Bears. Tying the Senators with 60 points in the East division, the Wilkes-Barre Scranton Penguins beat Syracuse last night 5-4 on the road. Syracuse enforcer, Brandon Sugden scored twice for the Crunch bringing his season total for goals to 3 goals in 46 games played.

Bridgeport’s win and Philadelphia's tie in Cincy put both teams at the top of the East division at 73 points. Philadelphia has the slight edge with two more wins then the Sound Tigers after 58 games played by both teams. Hershey's loss last night dropped the Bears to 9 points behind the co-leaders of division and allowed the Admirals to come to one point from them in the East. Admirals win over the Senators put the Sens three points behind the Ads and also allowed the Penguins who won last night to tie the Senators for fifth in the East at 60 points. Albany, 12 points behind the Sens and the Pens are in last place in the East at 48 points.

East Standings:
Philadelphia - 73
Bridgeport - 73
Hershey - 64
Norfolk - 63
Binghamton - 60
Wilkes-Barre - 60
Albany - 48

Tonight all seven teams are in action with the Admirals hoping to place a five-point lead over the Senators with a win tonight. The Admirals, the hottest team in the AHL at the moment winning their last 9 out of 10 games could place themselves in third place tonight with a win over the Sens and a loss from Hershey. Philly and Bridgeport are both playing outside the division tonight but both teams could take the division lead with a loss by either team. Hershey hopes to change its losing ways tonight vs. Albany to keep the Admirals in fourth place. The Penguins in Toronto are looking for a win and Senators loss to place them alone in fifth place.

Senator's Need: The Senators need to win tonight and a Wilkes-Barre loss in hopes to salvage an all ready rocky road trip that continues tomorrow in Hershey. The Senators tied for fifth in the East right now with Wilkes-Barre, plays Norfolk tonight, 3rd place Hershey tomorrow and Wilkes-Barre on Wednesday in a crucial part of the season.

Key's to tonight's game vs. Norfolk: The Senators need to control the puck in the neutral zone and in their offensive zone. Four shots on goal in two periods will not win any team games no matter how good or bad the opposing goalie is. The Senators will have injured winger Brad Tapper returning to the game tonight after being out of action for more than two weeks due to a concussion. The Senators are looking to restore 2/3 of their most recent successful line as Tapper will most likely be put on a line with Alex Giroux where that line along with recently traded Brooks Laich scored many of the Senators mid-season goals.

After tonight's AHL action 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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