Scoreless Tie a First For B-Sens
February 18, 2004
The Binghamton Senators and Syracuse Crunch skated to a 0-0 overtime tie Wednesday night at the War Memorial at OnCenter in front of 6,184 fans.
The shutout was the second consecutive goalless performance by the Senators in two trips to Syracuse in five days on the heels of last Friday’s 3-0 win by the Crunch.
The scoreless duel was the first in Binghamton franchise history in 135 contests.
Fred Brathwaite, down on a conditioning loan from the Columbus Blue Jackets, stopped all 36 Binghamton shots to garner Star of the Game honors.
His shutout was countered by 2
nd Star Ray Emery, who earned his third whitewash of the season and tenth of his career with 27 saves.
Binghamton’s best chances came in the second period as Greg Watson rang a shot of the right post from the slot and Julien Vauclair had an apparent goal waved off by referee Jeff Smith, whose quick whistle nullified Vauclair’s stuff try to the left of Brathwaite.
Syracuse countered with several brilliant chances in the same period, only to be held at bay by Emery.
The Sens were 0x2 on the power play while the Crunch’s AHL-leading man-up unit was held off the board in three attempts.
The featured the return of rugged winger Rob Ray to the Senators organization.
Signed as a free agent by the Ottawa Senators last Friday, Ray made the first appearance in his conditioning stint with the B-Sens.
Ray matched up with Crunch tough guy Brandon Sugden in a first period bout and later in the contest, showed some offensive touch by setting up several scoring chances.
On the night, Ray finished nine penalty minutes, cracking the 800 minute mark (804) in his 126 game AHL career.
With the tie and Norfolk’s win in Albany, the Sens pulled to within six points of idle Hershey, but dropped to fifth place in the East Division, a point behind the Admirals.
Binghamton next takes on Providence Saturday night at the Broome County Veterans Memorial Arena in a 7:05 faceoff before playing in Springfield Sunday and Manchester on Monday.
