Senators Articles: Senators warming up to benefits of home ice
October 23, 2004

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

Senators warming up to benefits of home ice

BY SCOTT LAUBER

Press & Sun-Bulletin

BINGHAMTON -- They don't stray too far from home until early December, so the Binghamton Senators understand the importance of establishing an advantage at the Broome County Veterans Memorial Arena.

"It's a smaller rink than a lot of the other rinks around the league, and hopefully, we can get teams thinking about that," captain Chris Kelly said. "From what a lot of people say, it's hard to play here, and we want to make this place a tough place to play."

Including Friday night's game against the Hershey Bears, seven of the Senators' next nine games -- and 12 of 19 until a trip to Toronto on Dec. 1 -- will be played at the Arena, where they went 21-13-3-3 last season and 23-11-4-2 in 2002-03.

The Senators got off to a good start on home ice last Saturday night with a 4-1 victory over the Syracuse Crunch. That came on the heels of the season-opening 6-2 defeat in Albany.

"You always want to get off on the right foot at home," goalie Ray Emery said. "You know, if you're going to have any success, that you have to play well in front of your own fans and make your rink a tough building for other teams to come into and win."

BLACK & BLUE REPORT

As expected, Kelly returned to the lineup after missing last Saturday night's game with a bruised left knee.

But as Kelly came back, defenseman Anton Volchenkov was sidelined with the flu. His spot in the lineup was taken by rookie defenseman Neil Komadoski.

EX-FILES

Of the three ex-Senators playing for Hershey, the most intriguing post-Binghamton story belongs to Jeff Ulmer, who scored the first goal in B-Sens history two seasons ago.

Ulmer didn't re-sign with the Senators after playing a defensive role for the club. He opened last season in Britain but quickly hooked on with Lukko Rauma of the Finnish Elite League after scoring nine goals and nine assists in 18 games.

In Finland, Ulmer roomed with former Senators teammate Joe Murphy and scored 13 goals in 34 games. He signed with Hershey's parent club, the Colorado Avalanche, over the summer.

"I went to Finland because it was supposedly the fastest league in Europe, the most similar to North American hockey," Ulmer said. "I played well, and I guess Colorado noticed."