AHL Preview: Senators vs. Penguins
The second of three AHL games on this evening’s schedule begins at 7:05 p.m. as the Binghamton Senators visit the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins.
• Binghamton Senators: 21-8-1-2, 45 pts/32 GP — 104 GF, 80 GA, 7-2-0-1 in last ten games, 4th in Eastern Conference
• Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins: 15-16-2-1, 33 pts/34 GP — 83 GF, 90 GA, 2-7-1-0 in last ten games, 11th in Eastern Conference
The Senators had a five-game winning streak come to an end with a 5-2 loss to the Albany Devils on January 6. Before that, the team hadn’t lost since December 26 and had come out victorious over Albany, Rochester, St. John’s, Wilkes-Barre/Scranton and Hershey.
Leading the way for Binghamton this season is right wing Jakob Silfverberg, who has 28 points (13-15) in 32 games. Defenseman Andre Benoit has 23 points on the season, while Mark Borowiecki leads the team with 96 penalty minutes.
Senators center Derek Grant leads the league in shorthanded goals, with four in 32 games this season.
Wilkes-Barre, meanwhile, broke a five-game losing streak with a win over Worcester on January 5 before suffering a loss to Connecticut the next day.
Rookie Beau Bennett leads the Penguins with 23 points in 28 games and is 10th in rookie scoring leaguewide. Centers Trevor Smith and Riley Holzapfel have 21 points each, and rookie Bobby Farnham’s 102 penalty minutes are the most on the team.
Tonight’s game is the sixth of ten meetings this season between the Senators and the Penguins, with Binghamton winning four of the matchups so far this year.
The teams first met in Binghamton’s opening game of the season, which saw the Senators come out victorious by a score of 2-1. Hugh Jessiman and Jakob Silfverberg scored for Binghamton, with Trevor Smith notching the lone goal for the WBS Penguins.
They met again on November 7 in a 1-0 shootout win for the Penguins. After a scoreless regulation period, Paul Thompson, Trevor Smith and Tom Kuhnhackl scored in the shootout for Wilkes-Barre. Mika Zibanejad and Andre Petersson scored in the shootout for Binghamton, but it wasn’t enough for a win.
Binghamton would win the next game, a 3-1 victory on December 14. Patrick Wiercioch, Hugh Jessiman and Jakob Silfverberg scored for the Senators, while Trevor Smith scored the lone goal for the Penguins.
They met again five days later, and Binghamton once again came out on top, scoring four times in the third period to rally back for a win. Philip Samuelsson, Bobby Farnham and Warren Peters scored for the Penguins, while Binghamton’s goals came from Jean-Gabriel Pageau, Jakob Silfverberg and Shane Prince (two).
The teams’ most recent meeting came just five days ago, in a game that saw the Senators win by a score of 3-1. Beau Bennett had the lone goal for the Penguins in the loss, while Hugh Jessiman, Derek Grant and Mike Hoffman tallied for Binghamton.
Coming up: After tonight, the teams won’t meet again until February 12. They’ll face off again just four days later before meeting twice in March (27, 30) to close out the season series.