The Binghamton Black Bears (1-0-0) opened their
2026-27 season with a 5-2 victory over the Watertown Wolves
on Banner Raising Ceremony Night in front of a sellout crowd of
4,893 at Visions Veterans Memorial Arena. The
evening began with the raising of Binghamton's third consecutive
Commissioner's Cup championship banner, with Watertown serving as
the opponent for the third straight banner-raising occasion.
The Black Bears took a 1-0 lead at the 10:56 mark of the opening
period when CJ Stubbs scored on the power play,
assisted by Ivan Bondarenko and Scott
Ramaekers. Binghamton extended its lead to 2-0 at 14:11 as
Chance Gorman also converted on the power play,
with Sam Dabrowski and Andrew Logar
collecting the assists. The Wolves answered with just one second
remaining in the period when Donovan Powell scored
a power-play goal, assisted by Matthew O'Shaughnessy, sending
the teams into the first intermission with Binghamton holding a 2-1
lead.
Ivan Bondarenko took over in the
second period, scoring twice on the power play to give the Black
Bears some breathing room. At 6:31, Bondarenko made it a 3-1 game
with Scott Ramaekers and Chance Gorman
assisting. With just eight seconds remaining in the period,
Bondarenko struck again at 19:52, finishing a play set up by
Sam Dabrowski and CJ Stubbs to give
Binghamton a 4-1 advantage heading into the final period.
Watertown made a goaltending change before the third period,
replacing former Binghamton netminder Nolan Egbert
with rookie Samuel Zgiet. The Black Bears extended
their lead to 5-1 at 10:04 when Gorman scored his second goal of the
night, assisted by Nick Cyprian and Sam
Dabrowski. A series of penalties followed at 10:51,
including an unsportsmanlike-conduct minor and a 10-minute
misconduct for Andrew Logar. Watertown capitalized on the power play
at 11:33 when Jake Shultz scored, assisted by
Powell, but the Black Bears held on for the 5-2 season-opening
victory.
Binghamton finished the night with four power-play
goals, with Bondarenko and Gorman each recording two goals and an
assist. Dominik Tmej stopped 15 of 17 shots to earn
the win, while Egbert made 38 saves on 42 shots through two periods
and Zgiet stopped 15 of 16 shots in relief.
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