Bingo Blanks Deer 9-0

Binghamton, NY - After a week filled with changes, the Dashers couldn’t wait to return to normalcy and hit the ice with the Fed’s best Binghamton Black Bears. However despite Parker Rutherford’s career high 61 saves the Dashers would be boat-raced by the Black Bear’s led by Tyson Kirkby’s hat-trick. 

In period 1 the Dashers came out with some early pressure on Nolan Egbert, forcing him to slam the door on an early flurry. However, this positive did not last long. The game remained rather neutral through the opening 10 minutes, with Parker Rutherford making some beautiful saves fresh off his return from Knoxville. But against such a high powered offense, anything can happen in the blink of an eye. Just past the midway point, Austin Thompson found a puck in the slot and roofed it for his tied for team high 28th of the season to open the scoring. 4 minutes later, the Hockey Gods gave a fortunate bounce off the end wall right to a streaking Josh Fletcher who had an empty net to score on and double the lead. In the closing moments of period 1, Jhuwon Davis was booked for a hook, opening the door to one of the league’s best power plays. Binghamton established the zone and moved the puck well, eventually leading to CJ Stubbs one timing a Yates feed past Rutherford to make it 3-0 with less than a minute remaining. The Bears outshot the Dashers 20-4 in the first frame and happily carried their 3 goal lead with them into the break. 

Period 2 was very similar to period 1, lopsided in favor of the home team. The scoring in the frame didn’t begin until late. There was a scary moment around the midway point when Gavin Yates went down hard into the wall and had to be helped off the ice, a key piece of the Binghamton offense. There were a mess of penalties as well in the frame, but still no goals with just around 4 minutes to go in period 2. With the Dashers on another powerplay, a clearing attempt left the zone and was recovered by Kirkby. Making a beautiful move between the legs, Kirkby got the puck back to his forehand and shelved one over Rutherford shorthanded to push the lead to 4. Less than 3 minutes later on a power play of their own, Jesse Anderson one-timed a cross-crease feed from Thompson for the Bear’s second man-advantage tally of the evening, pushing the margin to 5-0. The shots in period 2 were 29-4 Binghamton, and 49-8 in the game as the teams geared up for the final 20.

20 more minutes ahead in a 5-0 hockey game, and Binghamton had no intention at all to hit the breaks. 3 even-strength Bear goals were scored in a span of 1:33 in the front half of the frame. First it was Cam Clark adding his name to the sheet with a tally off both posts and in. Exactly 50 seconds later Tyson Kirkby potted his second of the game to make it 7-0. The final blow of the flurry came from a Dakota Bohn shot out of the high slot to make it 8. Bohn earned FPHL points 100, 101, 102, and 103 in his second star of the game effort as well. The final goal of the game was the eventual first star Tyson Kirkby fluttering a one-timer on the powerplay past Rutherford to cement the score 9-0 and collect yet another hat-trick. Binghamton outshot the Dashers 70-14 across the full 60 minutes. Nolan Egbert earned his second shutout of the season and was named the games third star. Parker Rutherford made a career high 61 saves in the losing effort.

The two teams will play again tomorrow at 6:00 CST inside the Visions Veterans Memorial Arena.