Sens vs. Penguins 10/31/04 Preview: Halloween in WBS, when the Pens host the Sens
October 31, 2004

Posted by: Bob Howard
Credit: Binghamton Hockey.net

The Binghamton Senators travel on the road tonight to face East division rival, the Wilkes-Barre Scranton Penguins in the first of eight meetings this year in the 04-05 season. The Senators and the Penguins became fierce rivals when the Senators came into the AHL 2 years ago and the rivalry continued on even in this years pre-season as the two teams and the Syracuse Crunch battled in a tournament for the I-81 Puck Cup. Each team played two games vs. each other with the Senators standing on top and winning the first ever I-81 Cup Puck championship.

The Senators and the Penguins have faced each other in the regular season a total of 16 times over the past 2 years, playing 8 games each season. In Binghamton's first season back in the AHL, the Sens won 5 games and only lost 3 versus the Penguins. And in a much odd stat, the 03-04 season saw the two teams tie 4 times out of 8 games and the Penguins won 3 of the other four games vs. the Sens. This puts both teams over the past two years close at 6 games won by both teams, 6 games lost by both teams and 4 ties. As most know, the Sens and the Pens cannot end any games this season in a tie with the AHL now using the Shootout as the way to break ties and to determine a winner if the game is not won by a team after a 5 minute, 4 on 4 overtime period.

The last regular season game between the Penguins and the B-Sens happened on Wednesday, April 7th of the 03/04 season as the B-Sens paid their final visit to the Wachovia Arena at Casey Plaza. As was the motif last season the two teams battled to a 2-2 tie in front of a reported sell out crowd of 8,322. The B-Sens received their two goals from Charlie Stephens in the first period to give the B-Sens 1-0 lead in the game and then Serge Payer scored in the third after two Penguins goals to tie it back up. The Penguins two goals in the second came from Patrick Boileau at the 13:19 mark and by the departed Eric Meloche, who signed with the Philadelphia Phantoms in the off-season. Ray Emery stopped 35 shots on 37 tries, while Sebastien Caron only had to stop 17 shots and saved 15. Binghamton's two goals were scored on the powerplay in the 2-2 tie with the Penguins.

The B-Sens in the last six games have gone 4-2 with the two losses coming last night versus the Manitoba Moose (5-3) and to the Bridgeport Soundtigers (3-2) in Bridgeport. The four wins started with the Sens first mini home stance vs. the Crunch (4-1), the Hershey Bears (3-2) and Bulldogs (2-1). The fourth win was also at home after the Bridgeport loss as the Sens defeated the Norfolk Admirals (5-3) this past Friday.

The Penguins have not started out as the wanted this season after taking a run at the Calder Cup last season all though losing the Milwaukee Admirals in 4 games in the finals. The Pens are 3-3 in their last six games with the victories being over the Norfolk Admirals (3-2), the Albany River Rats (4-1) & last night’s game versus the Soundtigers (1-0). The Pens losses came at the hands of Norfolk (4-3), Albany (5-2) and the Syracuse Crunch (4-3).

Shane Endicott is leading the Penguins in points with 9, 5 goals and 4 assists, with Michel Ouellet close behind with 8 points, 5 goals and 3 assists. The goaltending has not been great between the Pens' Andy Chiodo and Marc-Andre Fleury. Fleury has 2 wins and 3 losses with a 3.45 goals against average and a 89.4 % saves percentage. While Chiodo has 1-2 record with Shoot Out loss and 3.61 goals against average and a 86.6 % save percentage.

The Senators (4-3-0-0) are tied with the Penguins (3-4-1-1) with 8 points in the East division. Both teams will be looking for the win move ahead of the other in the division and their quest towards the Calder Cup playoffs.

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

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