Sens vs. Admirals 10/29/2004 Articles: Binghamton peppers Admirals for 5 goals
October 30, 2004

Posted by: Bob Howard
Credit: Scott Lauber of The Virginian Pilot

By SCOTT LAUBER, CORRESPONDENT, The Virginian-Pilot

BINGHAMTON, N.Y. — The Norfolk Admirals got reacquainted with Jason Spezza on Friday night. So did the Binghamton Senators.

Spezza, one of five locked-out Ottawa Senators toiling in the AHL during the NHL work stoppage, had been, by his own admission, “average” in the season’s first five games.

But as the Admirals returned to the site of their preliminary-round playoff sweep last spring, Spezza set up two goals and scored twice and was voted the No. 1 star of the Senators’ 5-3 victory at the Broome County Veterans Memorial Arena.

“Spez played well,” said Senators captain Chris Kelly, who was pretty good himself with a goal, three assists and a plus-5 rating. “He played well at both ends. Spez puts a lot of pressure on himself. Good players do that, and he answered the bell.”

So did the rest of the Senators, who played their best game thus far and won for the fourth straight time at home. Kelly and Spezza scored shorthanded in the second period to turn a 2-2 tie into a romp.

It took the Senators slightly more than 10 minutes to do something they were unable to do for 180 minutes late last season: score against Admirals goalie Michael Leighton.

Leighton had posted three 3-0 shutouts over the Senators in a span of seven days last April.

“We joked about it before the game,” Kelly said. “They’ve got two great goalies in Leighton and (Craig) Anderson. We knew we had to get the puck by (Leighton) at least a few times.”

Binghamton took a 1-0 lead at 10:10 of the first period when Spezza, after being taken down behind the net, fed rookie Brandon Bochenski at the right post for a shot under the crossbar and his first pro goal .

That lead lasted all of 32 seconds. The Admirals netted the equalizer at 10:42 on a stellar effort by wing Travis Moen, who took a feed from Mikhail Yakubov in the slot and eluded the defense to slip the puck past a sprawled Emery.

The teams traded goals in the first 7:15 of the second period, with Spezza scoring for the Senators and Ajay Baines tying it on the power play for Norfolk.

Kelly broke the tie with a shorthanded goal on a shot from the left circle at 7:28, and Spezza added a shorthanded goal at 15:32 to build a two-goal cushion. Spezza set up Charlie Stephens on a two-on-one at 1:39 of the third period for a 5-2 lead, and Norfolk’s Nick Kuiper closed the scoring with a goal at 15:22.

The Admirals (4-2) visit Albany tonight and Hershey on Sunday.