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Preview: Amerks vs. Senators

By Melissa Kania

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(Photo: Melissa Kania)

Just a day after signing goaltender Ben Bishop to an American Hockey League contract, the Binghamton Senators return to action on the road tonight, facing off against the Rochester Americans in a 7:05 p.m. matchup at Blue Cross Arena.

Binghamton is one of just a handful of teams in the league that have only played one game in this young season. (For the record, others are Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, Albany, Hershey, Portland, Milwaukee and Hamilton.)

The team’s lone game was a 2-1 win over the Penguins on Saturday. Hugh Jessiman and Jakob Silfverberg scored for Binghamton, with Cowen, Dziurzynski and Hoffman tallying the assists. Robin Lehner had 36 saves.

Despite having only played one game, the Senators are tied for third in the Eastern Conference with two points.

Tonight’s matchup will be Rochester’s third of the season, having previously played on both Friday and Saturday before having two days off.

The Americans are 1-1, as they defeated Syracuse in a shootout on Friday 6-5 before traveling to Toronto and suffering a 3-1 loss against the Marlies.

Forward Corey Tropp, who scored twice in Friday’s game, is now expected to miss the remainder of the season due to damage in his ACL and MCL.

Marcus Foligno and Cody Hodgson, two players who almost certainly would have been on the Buffalo Sabres roster right now if not for the NHL lockout, lead the team with three points each. Tropp, along with assistant captains Mark Mancari and T.J. Brennan, have two points each.

Amerks goaltender David Leggio has played in both games so far.

The teams met eight times last season.

The Senators won the first and last match-ups of the season, the first a 3-1 victory on October 29 in Binghamton, the last being a 4-3 overtime win on March 23 in Rochester.

Rochester, however, won the six games in between, including three away and three home games. Here’s a look at some of the statistics for the eight matchups:

  •  The Americans outscored the Senators, 23-16.
  • Binghamton outshot Rochester four out of the eight games, including the closing game of the season when the Senators won.
  • Shot totals for the games: 268-251, in favor of Binghamton.

Other statistics:

  • Binghamton: five power play goals, one shorthanded goal,133 PIM, 5/37 (13.5%) on the power play.
  • Rochester: four power play goals, three shorthanded goals, 119 PIM, 4/31 (12.9%) on the power play.

If he suits up tonight, this would not be Bishop’s first AHL game – he played three times with Binghamton last season and played for parts of four seasons with the Peoria Riverman, affiliate of the St. Louis Blues.

The Americans, meanwhile, used Brian Flynn on a line with Cody Hodgson and Luke Adam in Saturday’s game against Toronto. It’s expected for this to remain the same for tonight’s matchup.

Tonight’s game can be seen on AHL Live, but can also be heard on Sports 1280 AM WHTK in Rochester or on iheart.com.

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