Hamel leads Senators with four goals

Denis Hamel scored four times and he, Brandon Bochenski and Steve Martins combined for 14 points as Binghamton defeated Norfolk, 7-4, in the finale of the Admirals’ 11-game road trip on Wednesday night.

Hamel now has 42 goals on the season, second in the AHL.

Jason Morgan and James Wisniewski had a goal and an assist each as Norfolk held a 3-1 lead approaching the midway point of the game.

But Bochenski began his five-point night with a pair of goals, the second giving the Senators the lead for the first time at 4-3 with 15:30 left in regulation. He then assisted on all three of Hamel’s goals in a span of just under 10 minutes as the Binghamton captain became the second B-Sens player this season (Grant Potulny) with a four-goal game.

Hamel finished with five points as well, and Martins rang up a goal and three assists.

The Admirals went 4-4-2-1 on their 18-day expedition.

Elsewhere on Wednesday:

Portland opened up a four-point lead atop the Atlantic Division as Geoff Peters‘ hat trick led the Pirates to a 5-1 win in Hartford

Darryl Bootland scored three times, Donald MacLean netted his 48th goal of the year and Jiri Hudler got the winner in overtime as Grand Rapids outlasted Peoria, 5-4

Tuomas Pihlman scored twice for Albany in a 5-3 win over visiting Springfield

Joakim Lindstrom tallied two goals and Mark Hartigan and Jeff MacMillan each had a goal and an assist to lead Syracuse past Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, 5-0

Joey Tenute scored the winning goal early in the third period to give Hershey a 3-1 victory in Lowell and move the Bears to within one point of first place in the East Division