AHL Calder Cup Finals: Houston Aeros leads series and wins Game 3 against Binghamton Senators by 2-1
Houston Aeros took a commanding 2-1 lead in the American Hockey League (AHL) Calder Cup Finals on Wednesday, 1st June, defeating Binghamton Senators by 2-1 in Game 3, when the series returned to Binghamton, New York at the Broome County Veterans
Memorial Arena.
Houston won Game 1 of the Calder Cup Finals at its own home town at the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas, but lost Game 2, as the Senators levelled the series.
Houston was on the road and countered back with an away win in game 3 to take back the lead.
Aeros’ captain, Jon DiSalvatore, fired the opening goal from a rebound off his own shot only 68 seconds into the first period after Patrick O’Sullivan
won the initial face-off and slid the puck to rookie defenseman, Jared Spurgeon, who then found DiSalvatore open, close to the net.
After DiSalvatore’s sixth goal of the postseason, Nate Prosser extended the lead for Aeros in the second period.
Prosser grabbed the opportunity when the puck was loose and shot it through Binghamton goalie Robin Lehner for his second of the playoffs.
Binghamton was down by 2-0 as it entered the third and final period and the crowd was in a tense mood.
Senators’ captain, Ryan Keller, took charge and cut Aeros’ lead by half within the first three minutes with the only power-play goal of the match.
Houston’s goalie, Matt Hackett, put his defensive end into lockdown mode and had the Senators taking shot after shot but of no use which finally ended the game in Aeros’ favour.
Hackett finished the game with an impressive 28 of 29 deflections and extended his record to 14-7 in 21 playoff games played so far.
Binghamton, Ottawa Senators’ farm league team, clean-swept Charlotte Checkers during the AHL Eastern Conference Finals in four straight games.
However, it is struggling against Aeros, Minnesota Wild’s farm team, which barely won the Western Conference series against Hamilton Bulldogs.
Game 4 is scheduled to be played on Friday, June 3rd, and will give a chance to Houston Aeros to put Senators on the verge of elimination, while Binghamton hopes to tie the series once again.
Tags: