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Impact Players: Sirota, McAnanama, Stubbs May 9, 2025 | ||
Posted by: Bob Howard Credit: Binghamton Hockey.net | ||
May 9, 2025 - by Taylor Welch - BinghamtonHockey.net The final Impact Player post of the season. I know I have said this before but it truly is hard to pick only 3 players who impacted the final game this team is truly just so talented. One of the rookies new to this years team often dressed as the extra forward proved to be a very valuable player in the playoffs. Zac Sirota has a way of scoring some nasty important goals and the final game of the season was no different. There were about 5 minutes left in the second period Blake Tosto would dump the puck into the zone where Scott Ramaekers would give chase and backhand the puck over to Sirota who would score. Now the interesting thing about Sirota’s position is why I say the goal was nasty. Mario Cavaliere was watching Ramaekers and when he made the backhanded pass Cavaliere went to go from post to post not realizing that Sirota wasn’t on the other side of the net rather right in front of the Carolina net minder so before he could even reach the other post Sirota already had the puck in the back of the net giving the Binghamton Black Bears the go ahead goal. Sirota plays so well directly in front of net minders that that’s how he gets goals a lot of the times. He has proven time and time again that he deserved to play in the playoffs The Agawam Phenomenon has done it again, making the Binghamton Black Bears the first team in league history to win back-to-back championships. Connor McAnanama in 2 years of playoffs has an amazing record of 14-1-0. He was not only given the title of Goalie of the Year; he was also awarded FPHL Playoffs Most Valuable Player, making him the 3rd goalie ever to do so. From lying flat on his back, covering post to post, to those easy glove saves, McAnanama saved 35 out of 37 shots on goal. He also got an assist in the game around 4 minutes into the 2nd period. Petr Panacek would take the first penalty of the game for a high stick. It took Carolina about 40 seconds to clear the puck after the faceoff, where they would go for a line change, and McAnanama would use that time to play the puck, giving a stretch pass to Austin Thompson, who would get it into the zone to Tyson Kirkby, who was being chased down by Joseph Kennedy, so Kirkby made the choice to drop the puck back to Thompson to skate in alone and score, making the score 2-1. In the 3rd period, Carolina pulled their netminder with 3 minutes left in the game to gain the advantage of an extra attacker, which would prove unsuccessful against McAnanama. I’m sure I’m not the only one who saw him look up at the clock with only seconds left, knowing this game was about to end and they were about to hoist the cup. Lastly, I would just like to talk about the huge amount of respect McAnanama has received throughout the league, where even fan bases that don’t like the Binghamton Black Bears have recognized the outstanding performance of Connor McAnanama. We've talked about the rookie, so I think it's only fitting to talk about a pro. I've mentioned before that CJ Stubbs has played in the ECHL and SPHL and has played in the FPHL before with the Columbus River Dragons. Stubbs had a stellar season, managing 23 goals and 43 assists for a total of 66 points, ranking him 3rd for points among the team. In the playoffs he managed to get 3 goals and 1 assist for 4 points throughout 8 games. In my opinion, the biggest goal for him came in Friday night's game. They say that the first 5-10 minutes of a game show you who is going to control the game. However, in what would turn out to be the final game of the season, the first 5-10 minutes of this game showed 2 teams who wanted the win. It was an intense back-and-forth battle. It wasn't long after the first 10 minutes when Carolina would get the first goal of the game, and the fans who were there to support them showed up loud and proud. Both teams would go shot for shot in the first period, getting 11 shots on goal apiece. As the period ended, I imagine Carolina went into the locker room thinking they would have control of this game, but Stubbs quickly put an end to that when, only 38 seconds into the second period, Tyson Kirkby had the puck on the forehand and centered it up for Stubbs, who would score to make this a 1-1 game. You see it throughout the year, but there's just something special about the way a player looks after they score in the playoffs, and you could just see how much that goal meant to Stubbs.
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