On the farm: Bingo picks up steam

While the Ottawa Senators have lost two in a row, Binghamton had a perfect weekend and has now won two consecutive. On Friday the B-Sens won 4-3 over the Norfolk Admirals and they followed that up with a 3-1 win over the Rochester Americans.

Matt Kinch opened the scoring against Norfolk and Tyler Donati scored the game-winner late in the second period. Defenceman Brian Lee and winger Niko Dimitrakos both recorded two assists, and Brian Elliott stopped 39 of 42 shots to record his sixth win of the year.

The next night, Josh Hennessy scored the game-winner and added two assists in the 3-1 victory over Rochester. Elliott was in nets again, and stopped 31 of 32 while Larry Nycholat also moved up the team scoring chart, netting one goal and an assist.

Binghamton is now 15-12-4 and tied for third in the East Division of the AHL. Denis Hamel is now tied for second in the AHL with 17 goals. Top scorers for Binghamton, as of Dec. 23, 2007:

1. Denis Hamel: 28GP, 17G, 8A, 25P
2. Lawrence Nycholat: 31GP, 5G, 18A, 23P
3. Josh Hennessy: 30GP, 10G, 12A, 22P
4. Ilya Zubov: 31GP, 7G, 14A, 21P
5. Alexander Nikulin: 25GP, 5G, 14A, 19P

Fisher out for a few games

Turns out the oblique-muscle strain Mike Fisher sustained in the Sens' 7-3 victory over the Atlanta Thrashers is serious enough to keep Fish the Dish out of the lineup for at least a few games. According to the Ottawa Sun, he's not going to travel with the team through Boston and Atlanta and thus won't be back in the lineup for at least a week. At least he'll have time to recover from the dental work he's having to repair the chiclets he lost after Scott Walker's headbutt on Dec. 12.

The Sens, as we all know, are already missing Patrick Eaves and Anton Volchenkov, and I remember reading that Brian McGrattan is questionable if not doubtful for Tuesday's game against Boston.

If McGrattan is able to play, it makes it easy for John Paddock; he'll likely keep Cody Bass up with the big team (and maybe move him up, because JP seemed to be pleased with the work of BassMaster) and play Grats on the fourth line. If not, count on another call-up from Binghamton.

Prior to deciding on Bass, Paddock mentioned that his other options were Niko Dimitrakos, Ilya Zubov, or Alexander Nikulin. If the trend we've seen continues, someone other than Sputnik will likely get the chance. Zubov has a better offensive upside, but Dimitrakos likely plays a more defensively responsible style. While I'd like to see Zubov get a chance, I would lean towards NiDi getting the call and subsequent limo drive. Since the B-Sens game scheduled for Hershey tonight has been postponed until later in the week, whoever is called up will probably come straight from Bridgeport to Ottawa tomorrow, once the roads clear a bit.

On the farm: weekly Binghamton update

If Alexander Nikulin was angry with being assigned back to the B-Sens of the AHL after a forgettable two-game stint with Ottawa, it sure didn't affect his performance. After missing a game due to visa problems (how do the Sens let that happen? Come on, Tim Murray!), Nikulin scored once and set up three goals in a 4-0 blanking of the Bridgeport Sound Tigers. Denis Hamel scored twice, while Jeremy Yablonski rounded out the scoring and Ilya Zubov notched two assists. Jeff Glass got the shutout.

The next night must have been an amazing game to watch, and ended with an 8-5 victory over the Norfolk Admirals. After going down 5-4 in the third, the B-Sens rallied to score four unanswered in less than nine minutes to settle the score. Yabo extended what must be a career-high goal-scoring streak to two games. Hamel scored another two goals, giving him an AHL-leading 16 on the year. Larry Nycholat scored once and added three assists, and Niko Dimitrakos assisted on three consecutive goals, including the game-tying and game-winning goals.

As mentioned, Hamel now leads the league in goals, and his five goals over three games earned him AHL player of the week honours.

Binghamton earned 5 of a possible 6 points this past week, and is now 5-0-1-1 in he past seven games. Their record is 11-8-2-1 overall, worth 25 points and good for fourth in the AHL's East Division.

Top five scorers for Bingo, as of Dec. 3:

1. Denis Hamel: 22GP, 16G, 6A, 22P
2. Alexander Nikulin: 16GP, 4G, 11A, 15P
3. Larry Nycholat: 22GP, 2G, 13A, 15P
4. Niko Dimitrakos: 17GP, 8G, 6A, 14P
5. Josh Hennessy: 21GP, 5G, 9A, 14P