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Day After Game Report: Black Bears Take Game 1, Make Carolina Pay May 3, 2025 | ||
Posted by: Bob Howard Credit: Binghamton Hockey.net | ||
May 3, 2025 - by Bob Howard - BinghamtonHockey.net The Binghamton Black Bears are two wins away from their second championship after capitalizing on the Carolina Thunderbirds mistakes in last night’s game down in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. The Black Bears are a better team than they were last year, defensively and fundamentally better as well. I didn’t think it could be true, but they are. The over all team defense and awareness on the ice is just better then it was last season. Two plays last night just stand out to me as a team that just knows when to make a team pay with turn overs and mistakes. Brant Sherwood said to the media earlier in the week that the first five minutes of the game that you would see who was going to be the team to beat, the Black Bears showed that it was going to be them. At the 3:33 mark of the first period, Gavin Yates setup Kyle Stephan for his first goal of the playoffs as the two came streaking in and Yates sent a cross ice diagonal pass to Stephan who’s shot beat the Thunderbirds Mario Cavaliere as he was trying to get over to his blocker side. This was the north south movement and east west passing that I think will be key to winning this season’s Cup Championship. However, Gavin and Kyle were not done there as the first of two key turn overs by the Thunderbirds happened just under three minutes later and Stephan set up Yates for his fourth goal of the playoffs and just 6:19 of the 1st period and the Black Bears had a two nothing lead. The Black Bears when they have a lead like this and there are no shenanigans, usually buckle down and win games. Here is what Brant Sherwood thought of the Stephan line last night: “Steph’s line played great and went against Fords line in doing so. I thought Steph won races and forechecked extremely well. Yates created a ton of the rush and was able to capitalize off a turn over. Oli was the savvy vet that managed the puck very well. Great effort by those three.” Zach White is one of those players who can play in the ECHL and has almost 200 games in the Coast already. A leading scorer at Curry College (D3), Zach has played his career mostly in the SPHL or the ECHL including 8 games in the ECHL this season, while playing 33 games for the Thunderbirds. Only a few minutes after the Black Bears scored their second goal, Ford and White came into the zone with a two on one play with only Jesse Anderson in position to make a play on Ford, Dan Wieber was trailing behind Zach White which allowed Ford to send a good pass to White who has an outstanding shot to beat the Black Bears Connor McAnanama. And if that was the only breakdown of the night for the Black Bears, you can see why they walked away with the 4-1 win. Jesse and Dan were outstanding for the Black Bears all night long and that play was more about Ford and White making a broken down play on the Black Bears part play into their favor. Good players are going to take advantage of that, all night long. But it was the only time that type of play was there for the Thunderbirds. Then the goal of Blake Tosto happened in the second period, the goal that I believe was more than an insurance goal but was the nail in the coffin goal for last night’s game. With three fresh bodies coming on to the ice including Chris Mott, Dan Stone and Dakota Bohn, it was Austin Thompson and Tosto who were the keys to the goal. The puck was up against the boards where Thompson had a Thunderbird pinned to the boards. The puck which was controlled by the Thunderbird was sent cross-ice and it seemed to be heading to the stick of another Thunderbird until Tosto swooped in and took a wrist-shot that beat a surprised Cavaliere and it was 3-1 Black Bears. Even though Thompson did not get an assist on the play because he didn’t send the puck out from the boards, that was a huge play and the key was the great fore-check of Thompson to create the opportunity. If I was giving out stars, mine would go to that play. How it was non-scripted, but something the Black Bears work on in practice and how important it was in the middle period and what it did for the Black Bears who then were able to concentrate on playing sound defense and keeping the grade A chances down to a minimum. After another turnover of the Thunderbirds, the Captain Tyson Kirkby scored the Black Bears scored the Black Bears fourth goal in the 3rd period which then limited the Thunderbirds options. They didn’t even pull or had the chance to pull their net-minder. The Black Bears managed the 3rd period excellently, yes the Thunderbirds put the pressure on, but the Black Bears were able to keep everything at bay enough and Connor McAnanama, who is definitely in the running for playoff MVP, just had another outstanding game. Sherwood on his 2nd year net-minder: “C Mac is dialed in this time of year. We had one break down in the first period that they capitalized on. They had some Ozone pressure in the third that he made some spectacular saves on.” What does this all mean? The Black Bears take game 1 and make the trip a little better knowing that no matter what happens in game two, they come home with the worst, a split and on the up-side a 2-0 lead if they win tonight. Sherwood on the importance of the first game of the series win: “Game 1 is huge, but the room has already moved on to tomorrow. A job well done, but we ain’t finished.” So I will end with this. When Binghamton Senators Head Coach Kurt Kleinendorst would talk to us post game during the finals, he would always say, no matter if they won or loss, as soon as your head hits the pillow, you forget about tonight and tomorrow is a new day, win or lose. Game 2, tonight at 6:00 PM in Winston-Salem.
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