River Sharks Down Black Bears in OT, 4-3!

The River Sharks battled their I-86 rivals the Binghamton Black Bears. In their first encounter in Binghamton the Black Bears showed their offensive fire power with a seven goal outpouring to the River Sharks three. However these were two different teams than the ones that met two weeks ago.

Elmira came out strong in the first period attacking the Bears netminder Nolan Egbert. After a failed power play the Black Bears fired back, but though it seemed like the period was going to end in a scoreless tie a late break and series of passes from Nick Gullo to Marty Moucha and back to Elijah Wilson to tape it home for a 1-0 lead with just 11 seconds to go in the first.

The second period was a firing squad again for both sides. After an early goal from Cooper Bowman on a beauty of a pass from Bret Parker to give the River Sharks a 2-0 lead, Binghamton had a chance on a penalty shot after Andrew Logar was dragged down from behind. Spencer Kozlowski was up to the task and kept the game locked at 2-0. Unfortunately the Black Bears were able to answer back 4 minutes later on a goal from Austin Thompson to make it 2-1. After a slew of penalties to end the period the 2-1 score held up going into the final frame.

Binghamton continued in the trend scoring a power play goal from Dustin Jesseau to tie up the game at two a piece. Though the intensity of the game ramped up the teams continued to play even strength hockey until a penalty to Brandon Lucchesi for boarding saw a break for Moucha where he forehand-backhanded the goalie and went top shelf to give Elmira a 3-2 lead. In something that ha been all too common however 17 seconds later Nikita Ivashkin tied up the game.

Heading into overtime the chirping didn’t die down, but it was Elmira who controlled the play early. After Binghamton regained and dumped the puck in Stavros Soilis saw an opportunity and the captain blazed a path to the net burying the puck over the shoulder of Egbert and giving Elmira their first win of the season against the Black Bears.

Kozlowski stopped 41 of 44 in the victory his second of the season.

Elmira comes back to First Arena Friday November 3^rd at 7:05pm against the Motor City Rockers. Get your tickets on Ticketmaster.com, the app, or by calling 607-734-PUCK! #FeartheFin