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Day After Game Report: Ending The Regular Season With A Blow Out Win April 13, 2025 | ||
Posted by: Bob Howard Credit: Binghamton Hockey.net | ||
April 13, 2025 - by Bob Howard - BinghamtonHockey.net The Binghamton Black Bears won their final game of the season, 10-1 against the HC Venom. It was the 3rd game this season where the Black Bears scored double digit goals. As impressive as that sounds, being 49-6-1 is even more impressive. The Black Bears tied last night the 2018-19 Carolina Thunderbirds with 49 wins, a league record high in wins. The Thunderbirds .856 winning percentage is higher than the Black Bears .851 due to the Thunderbirds only needing 1 overtime win of there 49 wins that season. Ultimately, with the league improving so much over the last 6 years since the Thunderbirds championship season, what the Black Bears did this season with 2 less games is equally impressive, maybe even more. The 49 wins was the second most wins in Binghamton Hockey history, short of the Binghamton Rangers 57 wins from 92-93. The Black Bears do finish the season with the highest winning percentage in Binghamton Hockey history. Austin Thompson ended the season ended like he started it. After a rough two games against the Watertown Wolves to start the season, Head Coach Brant Sherwood challenged him with a 10th forward line-up spot against the HC Venom in game three. Austin responded with a hat trick and two assists for five points. Last night again against the Venom, Austin put an exclamation point on his third season as a pro with a hat trick, a four point night and ending the year with 39 goals, the team lead in that category. His 38 assists this season put him at a career high of 77 points, 20 behind Tyson Kirkby. The Captain had a goal last night and two assists, finishing with 97 points on the season. If not for the 3 game suspension and call-ups to the ECHL, Tyson would have had the 100 point season that I predicted he would have this year. Both Austin and Tyson are clear MVP players for the Black Bears. Thompson had nine game winning goals this season and Kirkby had twelve power play goals. Both players had four short-handed goals this season each on a team who scored 18 man down goals, which in league history stands in 2nd place as both Akwesasne & New Jersey had 20 short-handed goals each in the 2011-12 season. Chris Mott scored two of his own goals last night including the game winning goal and one of the Black Bears 18 short-handed goals, which was the 10th goal of the game. Mott’s 14th and 15th goals of the season makes Brant Sherwood’s decision tough with who fills in the 3rd line or the 10th forward position when making up his playoff roster because Nicholas Swain has also shown his value in just a short time. Last night he scored his 5th and 6th goals of the season and now has 6 tallies in just 9 games and is showing that he is a point a game or more player in this league. Can you imagine a third line of Cameron Clark with 20 goals, Chris Mott with 15, Scott Ramaekers with 17 and then a 10th forward of Zac Sirota with 12 goals? And that leaves out Blake Tosto who just returned or Josh Fletcher, both who have 5 goals and 7 goals respectively. The bottom end of the Black Bears team is as good or better then most teams first lines. This is a great or tough position for Sherwood to be in. But that is why he gets paid the big bucks, making these decisions. Dakota Bohn scored his 17th goal of the season last night, his 9th power play tally in a season that was outstanding for the reigning defenseman of the year. Both he and Dan Stone finished 1 and 2 in the +/- category with a + 56 for Stone and a + 53 for Bohn, cementing their status as the best two defensemen tandem this season. The league will not give every award to Binghamton players, though every award this season could be argued for a Binghamton player to win, yet I would have to say the most improved element to Binghamton’s game has been their defense and Dakota and Dan lead that defense. Basically last night the Black Bears dominated the whole game, they were so impressive with their play and that was with Kyle Stephan, Dan Wieber, Gavin Yates and CJ Stubbs out of the line-up. When I spoke to Wieber and Stephan after the game, both were smiling and perfectly happy letting some of the younger players get this game in. This team continues show no ego in the locker room and will support their teammates in every way needed to complete the ultimate task, win the championship. CJ Hapward was impressive last night. Obviously with the Black Bears offense exploding, he didn’t see a lot of shots. The one goal from Ricards Jelenskis was a great play for the Venom with a tic-tac-toe passing sequence that had Hapward caught trying to get back to his right side but the shot was too good and fast. But that wasn’t on Hapward, that was a great play from the Venom. He has started four games this season and impressed in all four. Will he see time in the playoffs? Outside of something crazy happening, I think the Black Bears will ride Connor McAnanama all the way through, Connor has earned the #1 position in their goalie ranks and nothing has changed. Here are the Notable #’s from this season: 3 Games with 10 or more goals: (1/31 – Columbus 11, 2/15 – HC Venom 11, 4/12 – HC Venom 10) 6 Shut Outs: (10/19 – HC Venom, 11/19 – Port Huron, 11/16 – Danbury, 12/28 – Danbury, 2/28 – Dashers, 3/15 – Carolina) Franchise Record in Wins, Winning Percentage: 49-6-1 – .851% (Tied Carolina for most wins (49) in league history. Franchise Record Win Streak: 18 (1/10 – 3/7) Franchise Record in Goals For: 289 Franchise Record Goals Against: 141 League lead in Power Play Goals: 71 (Has the league in this category every season in their four year existence) Franchise Record in Short-Handed Goals: 18 Goal Differential: + 148 Players Scored 10 or More Goals: 12 (Thompson 39, Kirkby 37, Stubbs 23, Yates 21, Olivieri 20, Clark 20, Ramaekers 17, Bohn 17, Stephan 15, Mott 15, Anderson 12, Sirota 12) 10 or More Power play Goals: 2 (Kirkby 12, Olivieri 11) +/- Leader: Dan Stone + 56 Franchise Season Wins by a Goalie: 30 – Connor McAnanama Franchise Season Goals Against Average: 2.08 – Connor McAnanama Franchise Season Save Percentage: .922 – Connor McAnanama Also I wanted to note: The Black Bears never lost more than one game in row in their 7 losses, first time in franchise history. All of those numbers are amazing and truly a remarkable accomplishment for the team. The organization also recorded 10 sell-outs this season which is the first team in Binghamton to get to double digits since the 2004-05 lock out year Binghamton Senators who had 14 sell-outs that season. The Black Bears drew 124,838 fans, second only to the first year Monroe Moccasins who drew 4,519 fans per game with 126,538 fans seeing hockey back in Monroe in a very long time. The Black Bears also saw a 29th home game this season due to the HC Venom home arena issue this season. The fan support for the team has been outstanding, but whats more impressive, this is the first time in Binghamton Hockey history that after a Finals appearance, the attendance went up the next season. A testament to the Black Bears office and the community support for the team. The Black Bears now wait for their 1st round opponent. It will either be the Watertown Wolves or the Motor City Rockers, who play in the Wild Card, play in game on Tuesday. The Power Play Post Show will preview and discuss this all this week on the Facebook group and on this upcoming Thursday’s show.
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