Senators stave off elimination

Wednesday’s AHL boxscores || 2011 Calder Cup Playoffs schedules

BINGHAMTON 5, MANCHESTER 4 (OT)
Kaspars Daugavins scored a power-play goal with 6:38 gone in overtime as Binghamton staved off elimination with a dramatic 5-4 win over Manchester at the Broome County Veterans Memorial Arena on Wednesday night.

The Monarchs still hold a 3-2 lead in the Atlantic Division semifinal series as the teams head back to New Hampshire for Game 6 on Friday and Game 7 (if necessary) on Saturday.

Ryan Potulny scored twice in the third period for the Senators, his sixth and seventh goals of the series. Potulny tied the game at 3-3 at the 3:08 mark, then made it 4-4 with 4:34 left in regulation.

Cody Bass and Bobby Butler also scored for Binghamton, and Andre Benoit recorded three assists. The Senators, 3-for-20 on the power play through the first four games, went 3-for-9 with the man advantage in Game 5.

Ray Kaunisto scored his first two goals of the series for the Monarchs, and Viatcheslav Voynov and David Meckler also found the net.

Robin Lehner, making his first start of the series for Binghamton, finished with 30 saves to pick up the win. Jeff Zatkoff stopped 37 of 42 shots in the loss for Manchester.

WILKES-BARRE/SCRANTON 4, NORFOLK 2
After spotting Norfolk a two-game lead, Wilkes-Barre/Scranton has stormed back to tie their East Division semifinal after a 4-2 win in Game 4 at Scope on Wednesday night.

Corey Potter, Brian Strait, Ryan Craig and Joe Vitale all scored their first goal of the postseason for the Penguins and Brad Thiessen stopped 34 of 36 shots in net.

Craig’s power-play goal with 1:43 left in the second period snapped a 2-2 tie, and the Penguins shut down the Admirals in the third to claim its second straight road win after dropping Games 1 and 2 on home ice.

Dustin Tokarski made 29 saves in the loss, but allowed four goals to the Penguins in Game 4 after surrendering three goals total in the series’ first three contests.

Game 5 is Friday night in Norfolk.

CHARLOTTE 3, HERSHEY 2
Oskar Osala and Nick Dodge scored third-period goals and Mike Murphy made 35 saves as Charlotte evened its best-of-seven series with Hershey at two games apiece with a 3-2 win over the Bears on Wednesday night.

Osala, who won a Calder Cup with Hershey in 2009, scored on a power play at 6:29 of the final frame to break a 1-1 tie. Dodge provided an insurance marker with 2:39 remaining, and the Checkers held on after Mathieu Perrault’s second goal of the game made it 3-2 at 18:00.

Murphy, getting his second consecutive start after spending the last month on the injured list, stopped 10 shots in the first period, 13 in the second and 12 more in the third to pick up his first career postseason win.

Nicolas Blanchard also scored for the Checkers, and Jon Matsumoto recorded two assists.

Game 5 is set for Friday night in Charlotte.

OKLAHOMA CITY 5, HAMILTON 2
Mark Arcobello ended Oklahoma City’s power-play futility with 26 seconds left in the second period and sent the Barons on their way to a 5-2 win over Hamilton in Game 4 of their North Division semifinal series at the Cox Convention Center.

Oklahoma City, which was 0-for-15 on the power play in the series before Arcobello’s goal, upped its lead when Linus Omark banked a shot in from behind the goal line at 11:26 of the third, and capped the scoring with Chris Vandevelde’s empty-net goal in the final minute.

Hunter Tremblay, who played five seasons of major junior hockey with Barrie (OHL) and four years of Canadian university hockey at the U. of New Brunswick, opened the scoring with his first professional goal 3:06 into the game.

Ian Schultz, playing on Hamilton’s top line with Aaron Palushaj out of the lineup in Game 4, banged home a rebound after Nigel Dawes hit the post to tie the score at 1-1 at the 10:29 mark. The goal ended the Bulldogs’ scoreless streak at 109:26, going back to the second period of Game 2.

The Barons regained the lead in the second period when Zack Stortini, a member of the Bulldogs’ Calder Cup championship team in 2007, deflected a Ryan O’Marra shot home at 5:30, but Hamilton answered again on Paul Zanette’s first goal of the series at 13:50.

Martin Gerber finished with 29 saves for the Barons, who have won twice at home after losing the first two games of the series in Hamilton. Drew MacIntyre stopped 23 of 27 shots in the loss.

Game 5 will be Friday night in Oklahoma City.

MILWAUKEE 3, TEXAS 2
Milwaukee scored once in each period and tied its West Division semifinal at two games each with a 3-2 win at Texas on Wednesday.

Game 5 is Friday in Cedar Park.

Gabriel Bourque got Milwaukee on the board first at 14:03 of the first period with a power-play goal, his fourth goal and eighth point of the series.

Scott Glennie, Dallas’s first-round pick (eighth overall) in the 2009 NHL draft, and Taylor Beck, Nashville’s third-rounder in ’09, traded goals – the first professional tally for each – and the Admirals took a 2-1 lead into the second intermission.

After Mark Van Guilder gave Milwaukee a two-goal cushion at 3:13 of the third, Greg Rallo scored on a 5-on-3 power play to pull the Stars back to within 3-2, but the Ads held on.

Jeremy Smith (2-2) stopped 30 of 32 shots for the victors, while Richard Bachman turned aside 20 of 23 for the Stars.