B-Sens struggle with penalties, lack of scoring

• The B-Sens dropped their second game in as many nights at home in a 4-1 loss to Bridgeport.
• Bridgeport goalie C.J. Motte made 29 saves to get the win in his professional debut.
• Max McCormick scored the B-Sens’ only goal, his second in two days.

BINGHAMTON – One night after running into the hottest goalie in the American Hockey League, the Binghamton Senators went up against the league’s newest goalie. The results were frustratingly similar.

Bridgeport Sound Tigers goalie C.J. Motte, who signed with the team on Wednesday, made 29 saves in his first professional game to hand the B-Sens a 4-1 loss in front of an announced 3,625 at Floyd L. Maines Veterans Memorial Arena on Saturday night. Bridgeport’s Mike Halmo had two goals, while Max McCormick tallied the only goal for the B-Sens. McCormick has scored in the past two games.

Bridgeport (25-34-6-1, 57 points) swept the season series between the teams, outscoring the B-Sens 11-2 in two games. The B-Sens (28-30-7-1, 64 points) have now lost three straight games with a clash with Syracuse on the road looming on Wednesday. The B-Sens have scored just three goals in their past three games.

“We’re just struggling that last three games to get offense, and then the bounces are just going in against us,” B-Sens coach Luke Richardson said. “It’s a tough spell right now for us. I can see the frustration, in the guys, accumulate over the last couple nights.”

Motte, who played the past four seasons for Ferris State University, was a Hobey Baker Award finalist as a junior during the 2013-14 season. This past season, he recorded a 2.07 goals against average and a .922 save percentage.

“You could tell that he was excited to be out there and there was some adrenaline going on,” B-Sens captain Aaron Johnson said. “Sometimes that’s hard to play against. In our case, I think we need to bare down. We had a couple opportunities. We just need to score when we’re in there.”

Halmo took advantage of an errant clearing pass in toward the middle of the ice to score the game’s first goal. Halmo intercepted the pass about two strides inside the blue line with a straight path to the net. He went in for a relatively-uncontested wrist shot past B-Sens goalie Peter Mannino (22 saves).

Shortly after the first Bridgeport goal, B-Sens defenseman Mike Sdao and Bridgeport wing Brett Gallant dropped the gloves and squared off. Gallant dominated the early action with a flurry of punches landing. However, Sdao responded by landing far fewer but jaw-rattling blows, including an overhand left that knocked Gallant on the seat of his pants.

Unfortunately for the B-Sens, the fight was a microcosm of how the first period went – for Bridgeport. Like Gallant, the B-Sens had a multitude of early scoring opportunities including three power plays (the final one carried over into the second period). The home squad held a 14 to 5 advantage in shots after the first period, but Halmo’s goal served as the blow that put the B-Sens on their collective behind.

While the B-Sens may not have stayed down for the rest of the game, they were on their heels for most of the second period. A bench minor for too many men on the ice created the first of four power play chances for Bridgeport in the second. Aaron Ness fed Ryan Pulock for a blast from just inside the blue line for a 2-0 lead.

“It takes some guys out of the game and plays some guys too much,” Richardson said of being forced to play down a skater for a large part of the period. “Some guys that we play both power play and penalty killing, it does where them out. That takes a little bit away from our momentum as team.”

It took until 7:44 into the third period, but the B-Sens finally got one past Motte. After Motte saved the initial shot, the B-Sens created traffic in front of the net kept the puck alive long enough for Max McCormick to bang home his 10th goal of the season to cut the B-Sens deficit to one goal, 2-1.

That one-goal margin was short-lived as Halmo responded just one minute, 31 seconds later to make it a 3-1 lead. Griffin Reinhart capped the scoring after he muscled his way around a defender and flipped in Bridgeport’s fourth goal on a backhanded shot.

“It’s just a matter of guys needing to be better for each other,” Johnson said. “There’s breakdowns before these goals that are the problem. It’s not necessarily the shots that go in. There’s some things that we need to work on, and that’s the plan this week.”

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