GAME FOUR: Charlotte Checkers @ Binghamton Senators, May 18th, 7:05PM

The Binghamton Senators have taken a stranglehold on their best-of-seven series against the Charlotte Checkers with a commanding 7-1 win last night. They now have two games remaining to try and capture a series win on home ice for the first time this post-season. In fact, the last time that a Bingahmton team won a series on home ice was when they were the Rangers, in 1993. It's been a long time coming. Let's make the visitors weep tonight as they leave the Broome County Veterans Memorial Arena.

The B-Sens have won each game by 3 goals or more as they have 4 of the top 6 playoff scorers, and 7 of the top 16. With many on that leaderboard no longer playing (or about to be eliminated) that domination will likely only increase. Last night the B-Sens faced a determined Checkers team and escaped the first period with a 1-0 lead, being outshot 15-10. After Zack Smith scored his first goal of the game, shortly after the Checkers finished killing a penalty, the tables got turned as Condra went off for elbowing, after coming to the defense of a team mate. That could have been a turning point, and it was, as Zack Smith scored his second of the game, short-handed. The game's first star later completed his hat-trick, and picked up an assist along the way, as well.

Lehner, the game's 2nd star, stopped 37 of 38 shots, and has now stopped 72 of 73 shots since being pulled in game 1 of the series.

Captain Keller picked up 3rd star honors with a goal and an assist, as he inched one point closer to playoff scoring leader Ryan Potulny.

Game four goes tonight. In Broome county. Will the Checkers weep as they leave?

What's with the back-to-back games in the AHL?

Holy crap. Here we go! Let's close this one out boys!

GO BSENS GO!!!

Big Ev wrote:What's with the back-to-back games in the AHL?

What's the deal with airline peanuts?

SD's Red Line Report:

Kurt Kleindorst: The Sens have a lethal offense, a sturdy D (now) and two very strong goaltenders, but what really matters is the captain of the ship - and no, I don't mean C Ryan Keller, I mean the coach, Kurt Kleindorst, who admitted his team wasn't prepared for a game in round one and hasn't made that mistake since. His team is prepared, comes out hard and doesn't let up for the full 60 minutes. A tip of the hat to Coach KK.

GO B-Sens!!

Agreed. I think it was brilliant to pull Lehner when he did, by the way.

SeawaySensFan wrote:Agreed. I think it was brilliant to pull Lehner when he did, by the way.

brilliant move. he took alot of flak from ottawa fans but what a move....he knows exactly how to get the best out of his players. great stuff

With both Binghamton and Houston sitting with a 3-0 series lead, perhaps it's time to look ahead a bit. I'm just a fan, I can do that.

Crazy inter-conference rules in the AHL. The BSens didn't play the Aeros this season or the one before. The last time these two teams met was in the 2008-09 season, where they split the series. Binghamton won 4-0 at home, then lost 3-2 in Houston. So it's fair to say that we have no idea what to expect based on head-to-head record.

We know that Bingo is leading the playoffs in scoring. Houston has one player in the top-20 -- Patrick O'Sullivan, who is tied for 11th.

We know what Lehner has done in goal. Matt Hackett (Aeros) is leading the playoffs with 11 wins -- that's 2 more than Lehner, although he has played in 2 more games. However if you look at the actual goalie stats, he's not even average. His .910 SV% is 13th among the top 19 goalies -- even with the two games where Lehner struggled his overall SV% is .932. That's a difference of 22 goals on 1000 shots. At 30 shots per game over a 7 game series, that's the equivalent of 4.6 goals. More than enough to be the margin of victory.

So, does anyone know how the Aeros got to where they are? Team defense? Timely scoring? A lot of OT wins?

wprager wrote:With both Binghamton and Houston sitting with a 3-0 series lead, perhaps it's time to look ahead a bit. I'm just a fan, I can do that.

Crazy inter-conference rules in the AHL. The BSens didn't play the Aeros this season or the one before. The last time these two teams met was in the 2008-09 season, where they split the series. Binghamton won 4-0 at home, then lost 3-2 in Houston. So it's fair to say that we have no idea what to expect based on head-to-head record.

We know that Bingo is leading the playoffs in scoring. Houston has one player in the top-20 -- Patrick O'Sullivan, who is tied for 11th.

We know what Lehner has done in goal. Matt Hackett (Aeros) is leading the playoffs with 11 wins -- that's 2 more than Lehner, although he has played in 2 more games. However if you look at the actual goalie stats, he's not even average. His .910 SV% is 13th among the top 19 goalies -- even with the two games where Lehner struggled his overall SV% is .932. That's a difference of 22 goals on 1000 shots. At 30 shots per game over a 7 game series, that's the equivalent of 4.6 goals. More than enough to be the margin of victory.

So, does anyone know how the Aeros got to where they are? Team defense? Timely scoring? A lot of OT wins?

Mike Yeo?

Remember how they were talking him up in every Penguins broadcast a couple of years ago?

I'm wondering the same, who are the Houston Aeros and how did they get this far?

Keeping in mind that we shouldn't look past Charlotte until they're done. Just ask Manchester about that one.

http://www.aeros.com/team/roster/

http://theahl.com/stats/statdisplay.php?type=skaters&subType=5&season_id=36&leagueId=4&lastActive=&singleSeason=&confId=0

16 Patrick O'Sullivan LW 14 4 8 12 -2 8 1 0 0.86 0.57 67
26 Maxim Noreau D 14 2 8 10 +1 19 0 0 0.71 1.36 28
22 Jed Ortmeyer RW 14 2 7 9 +6 0 0 0 0.64 0.00 42
* 28 Jared Spurgeon D 14 1 8 9 +4 4 1 0 0.64 0.29 14
18 Colton Gillies LW 14 7 1 8 +8 13 0 0 0.57 0.93 16
17 Robbie Earl LW 14 4 4 8 -4 16 3 0 0.57 1.14 30
14 Jon DiSalvatore RW 14 4 3 7 +1 6 2 0 0.50 0.43 29
20 Chad Rau C 14 4 3 7 -3 2 2 0 0.50 0.14 33
25 Warren Peters C 14 3 4 7 +6 2 1 0 0.50 0.14 32
* 7 Casey Wellman C 14 2 5 7 -4 4 1 0 0.50 0.29 37
12 Cody Almond C 14 0 6 6 +2 8 0 0 0.43 0.57 22
* 19 Jarod Palmer RW 14 3 2 5 +5 2 0 0 0.36 0.14 12
27 Carson McMillan C 13 3 1 4 +2 8 0 0 0.31 0.62 16
* 6 Marco Scandella D 10 2 2 4 -2 4 2 0 0.40 0.40 13
5 Jeff Penner D 4 0 3 3 +3 2 0 0 0.75 0.50 5
29 Drew Bagnall D 14 1 1 2 +2 14 0 0 0.14 1.00 11
44 Justin Falk D 14 0 2 2 +2 10 0 0 0.14 0.71 15
* 15 Nate Prosser D 14 0 1 1 +1 4 0 0 0.07 0.29 22
62 Jean-Michel Daoust RW 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.00 0.00 0
42 Matt Kassian LW 6 0 0 0 +2 0 0 0 0.00 0.00 3
* 11 Brett Bulmer LW 8 0 0 0 +2 6 0 0 0.00 0.75 4
* 31 Matt Hackett G 14 0 0 0 0 4 0 0 0.00 0.29 0

Have to really watch DiSalvatore, O'Sullivan and the 2 huge offensive D-men, Noreau and Spurgeon. Gilles and Earl add punch too.

I like Bingo's depth at forward more though, so we'll see...

Mike Yeo? M. Yeo? Meow.

Dash wrote:Mike Yeo? M. Yeo? Meow.

Meow listen man, come on.

SpezDispenser wrote:I'm wondering the same, who are the Houston Aeros and how did they get this far?

Keeping in mind that we shouldn't look past Charlotte until they're done. Just ask Manchester about that one.

Manchester lost that all-important game 2, though.