The Belleville Senators hosted the Binghamton Devils for the second Wednesday in a row, but couldn’t repeat their offensive performance from the home opener one week before.
Binghamton picked up a 3-1 win in a defensive affair, on the back of two points by Eric Tangradi and 22 saves from Corey Schneider, who is down from NHL New Jersey on an injury conditioning stint.
The Devils opened the scoring midway through the first period when Michael McLeod worked his way around Sens’ defender Jordan Murray and fed a pass across to Marian Studenic, who beat Mike McKenna.
Belleville would draw even just over a minute into the second period when Nick Paul won an offensive zone faceoff and Rudolf Balcers jumped on the puck, feeding it over to Drake Batherson, who put it upstairs on Schneider for his third goal of the campaign.
That lead lasted about eight minutes, before the former Belleville Bulls’ captain Tangradi wrapped around the Senators’ and tucked home his second goal of the season, to make it 2-1.
The Devils would add some insurance in the third, with Nick Lappin banging in a power play rebound, assisted by Tangradi to make it 3-1, which stood as the final.
Senators Coach Troy Mann says he wasn’t unhappy with the game overall, but his team could have capitalized on more chances.
Belleville Senators forward Drake Batherson had one goal against the Binghamton Devils, at CAA Arena, on October 24, 2018. (Photo: Jason Scourse / Belleville Senators)
Both Ben Sexton and Paul Carey made their season debuts for Belleville, Carey after being sent down from Ottawa and Sexton after missing the first six games of the season due to injury.
Carey says despite registering under 30 shots he felt the team put enough rubber on the veteran goaltender at the other end of the ice.
Mann added that the Wednesday loss puts the team behind the eight ball a bit when it comes to having a successful week, but there are two chances to improve that as the team’s six game home stand wraps up when the Grand Rapids Griffins (Detroit Red Wings) visit CAA Arena for a Friday/Saturday double header.
Game time both nights is 7:00 p.m., with pre game coverage both nights on 800 CJBQ at 6:50 p.m. for Eastern Overhead Door and Deerhaven Farm and Garden.
You can click here for the Wednesday night box score and see highlights below.
