Sens vs. Moose 3/24/04 Articles: Third Period Sinks Sens 4-1
March 24, 2004

Posted by: Bob Howard
Credit: Binghamton Senators.com

Third Period Sinks Sens 4-1

The Manitoba Moose tallied four unanswered goals in the third to post a 4-1 comeback win over the Binghamton Senators Wednesday night in front of 3,792 fans at the Broome County Veterans Memorial Arena.

The loss ended the Sens’ three-winning streak and halted the club’s four-game unbeaten run (3-0-1) and dropped Binghamton three points behind Wilkes-Barre in the race for third place following the Pens’ last minute win over Manchester.

The Sens lead the Moose 1-0 on Brad Tapper’s ninth goal of the season as he placed a perfect upper corner shot past Manitoba goaltender Rob McVicar (25 saves) with 4:41 left in the opening period.

The scoring rush was set up by a Peter Smrek clearing pass up the glass that was scoped up by Denis Hamel. A 2-on-1 rush developed with Hamel sending a feed over to Tapper from the right circle.

Tapper finished and the Hamel assist set a new franchise scoring record as it was Hamel’s 63rd point of the year, breaking the mark of 62 set last season by Antoine Vermette.

That 1-0 lead held until early in the third period when the Moose went on the power play courtesy of a Christoph Schubert tripping penalty.

With ten seconds left in the man advantage, Peter Sarno wired his ninth of the season past a screened Ray Emery (44 saves) to tie the game at the 4:47 mark.

The game then turned in favor of the Moose ten minutes later condensed into a thirty-seven second span.

Jason King circled a shot around Emery off of a faceoff to his left at 14:04 to give Manitoba their first lead at 2-1.

Just over half a minute later, Brandon Reid was hauled down from behind after splitting the Binghamton defense in pursuit of a loose puck in the Sens’ zone.

Referee Harry Dumas awarded Reid a penalty shot, which he put home after deking Emery down to the ice, making it 3-1 at 14:41 and effectively ending thoughts of a comeback.

Sean Pronger added an empty net tally with 1:30 left for the final margin.

Manitoba outshot Binghamton in each period and posted a 48-26 advantage overall.

The Moose went 1x6 on the power play while the Sens were held scoreless in five attempts.

Binghamton hits the road Friday to battle Syracuse in a 7:30 p.m. faceoff before returning to home ice to face the Philadelphia Phantoms Saturday night at 7:05 p.m. Approximately 200 tickets remain for Saturday’s game against the Phantoms.