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Day After Game Report: The Best Teams Find Ways April 23, 2025 | ||
Posted by: Bob Howard Credit: Binghamton Hockey.net | ||
April 19, 2025 - by Bob Howard - BinghamtonHockey.net Scoring eighteen times short-handed seemed impressive during the regular season. Seems like a high number for a rare type of goal and in a couple of those short-handed goals, they were game winning goals. But the game winning short-handed goal last night in Watertown, trumps all of them as being the most important shorty of the season. Head Coach of the Binghamton Black Bears, Brant Sherwood has told me multiple times when we have talked about CJ Stubbs, about how great of an acquisition it was to get him here in Binghamton. The Black Bears and Brant cashed in those dividends last night after Donald Olivieri went to the penalty box for a hooking minor as 20 seconds later Stubbs stole the puck from the Wolves in their own zone, circled around and ripped a shot past Wolves net-minder, Breandan Colgan. Colgan had a solid night saving 33 of 36 shots the Black Bears sent his way. The Wolves even kept the Black Bears down below their normal mid-40 shots on goal average. But sometimes it only takes one shot to beat a team and Stubb’s 3rd shorty of the season came at the right time and in the right game, a playoff game on the road in a barn that is very difficult to play in. Stubbs goal was big. There is no doubting that at all. But the 1st period was one of the best starts for the Black Bears all season and it is something we talked about with Brant on Wednesday. Historically in Watertown, last season in the playoffs and this season the Wolves have out played and out started games when the two teams have faced off in the Watertown Municipal Arena. The Black Bears have struggled to get their legs going, have made mistakes in the opening periods in that smaller sized barn that have had to force them to battle back and Brant knew his team needed to change that last night. And they did. The Black Bears started out last night, first limiting the Wolves shots, puck possession and control of the game. They kept the puck in the Wolves defensive zone a lot and even when the Wolves skated in, the Black Bears had the lanes and angles cut off and secured. The ‘Game Plan’ was flawless in the first period. Other than a Swain penalty, the Black Bears played an almost perfect first period as they pulled the Wolves into committing their own penalties and giving the Black Bears opportunities to get on the score-sheet first and pucks in the back of the net. Hey, you want to get into the line-up? Have you played defense before? A little? Works for the Black Bears. The Black Bears first goal of the game came 6:27 into the 1st period off of the stick of a player, who has almost played on every line combination you can imagine this season and last night in game 1 of the playoffs for the Black Bears lined-up as a defenseman, Scott Ramaekers. I almost picked him as one of my Impact Players for Taylor to write-up, that’s how impressed I was with his game last night. On a pairing with Dan Wieber, his offensive instincts kicked in as Austin Thompson, who doesn’t get enough credit for the stretch passes and finding players like he does, got the puck to a charging through the neutral zone Ramaekers, who sent a back-hander from behind Colgan’s net off of the skate of Colgan for the games first goal. There wasn’t a thing Colgan could do and Ramaekers scored his first goal in the playoffs just 6:27 into his first playoff game. When we talk about with this team that you can put any player in any position and they can score or contribute in a big way, this is the perfect example. The first period saw the Black Bears score another goal just 3 minutes and 30 seconds after the Ramaekers goal. This one was by 2 time MVP, Gavin Yates. With Jimmy Lodge in the box for the first penalty of the game, Gavin had a man all over him and as he was just about to go around the net-minder Colgan, he was able to get a tough angle shot to go through the very little space that Colgan give him. I have stated in the past that Gavin scores important goals at important moments in games when you don’t know you need those goals. This is another one of those goals. After that goal, it would be over 40 minutes before the Black Bears would get the Subbs short-handed tally for the game winner. Sandwiched in between the Yates and Stubbs goals, the Wolves played very well and Colgan started to settle in. Breandan Colgan is a solid net-minder who if you look at all of those three goals last night for the Black Bears, not one of the was soft or something you would blame him for. They were either high risk goals, or snipes by the Black Bears that were going in either way. One of the keys to the game that I talked about on the Power Play Post Show as I previewed the Black Bears game 1 in Watertown, I stated that the Black Bears needed to stay out of the box because the Wolves are deadly on the power play and that two players who will cash in on man-up advantages did so last night. Trevor Lord in the second period and Davide Gaeta just 19 seconds into the third period scored on the power play. They are good shooters and given time and space on the power play, they will get their goals. Five on five the Black Bears are one of the best teams in the league, last night they kept the Wolves at bay, but a man down and given the opportunity, the Wolves made sure to let the Black Bears know, they were not out and that it was going to take something extraordinary to beat them. That’s why Stubbs and his short-handed game winner was the biggest goal of his Black Bears career. The instinct, the skill and the trust came through as it has all season and the Black Bears get cashed in on the acquisition of CJ Stubbs. Brant Sherwood knows how big the moment was for Stubbs, but also knows you need to look forward to the next game and moment. Here was Coaches comment after the game to me about the game and Stubbs goal: “Yeah we had a hot start and emphasized that we needed to all week. You need to have a good first five and overall first period in Watertown. However, we lost momentum in the 2nd and gave a really good PP team too many opportunities. The belief doesn’t stop with our group though. You don’t know when the moment comes, but CJ Stubbs captured his moment. It was highly intelligent read on the drop and he buried it. Now, we move on to game two tomorrow (tonight).“ The Black Bears return home tonight for game 2 vs. the Watertown Wolves and they will need their best game as the Wolves will and can play desperate in the potential elimination game.
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