River Sharks Fall to Binghamton, 7-3

The River Sharks opened up their season on the road against the Binghamton Black Bears at the Visions Veterans Memorial Arena on Saturday night. With this being the first of 13 matchups this season both teams were expected to come out hungry.

However it was an onslaught from the home team and saw a number of huge saves, but the Black Bears were able to hit the scoreboard first as Connor Smith broke into the zone on the near side and rocketed one over the glove side of netminder Spencer Kozlowski to give Binghamton the 1-0 lead. After successfully killing another penalty the River Sharks looked to rush up the ice, but Binghamton was able to keep control in the zone and work the puck to Brenden Stanko to give the Black Bears a 2-0 lead after one period.

The River Sharks came out for the second and aimed to battle back. The first goal in history came of a set faceoff play as Kona Jackson received a face-off back and fired it past Nolan Egbert for the first goal to cut the lead to 2-1. Binghamton didn’t back off however scoring the next three as Smith got his second, Austin Thompson, and Dustin Jesseau both added their first of the season. The River Sharks came up with one more before the period concluded though as Jackson netted his second of the evening on a pass from Ricards Jelenskis to make it 5-2.

Elmira came out hungry in the third, but couldn’t find the back of the net until 13:52 of the final frame when Lucchesi fired a rebound into an open cage cutting the deficit to 5-3. Binghamton responded again just 24 seconds later as Thomas Wray made it 6-3 and a late Tyson Kirkby goal finished off the season opener 7-3.

Kozlowski stopped 54 of 61 in the loss.

The River Sharks open up their home schedule Saturday October 21^st at 6:07pm and individual game tickets for 2023-2024 are on sale now. Call the First Arena Box office at 607-734-PUCK, log on to Ticketmaster.com or log into the Ticketmaster app and reserve your spot today! #FeartheFin