With their final loss of the season, the Binghamton Senators concluded the year with a four-game losing streak, putting the finishing touches on a bad week and a terribly disappointing season. Sunday night’s loss to the Albany River Rats was preceded by losses to the Hershey Bears and the Norfolk Admirals earlier in the week.

The Senators began their week with two games against Norfolk. They were shut out by the Admirals 2-0 Wednesday night, followed by a 6-2 loss on Friday. In the second meeting, the Admirals controlled the game early on, taking a two-goal lead by the end of the first period. Denis Hamel scored Binghamton’s first goal at 4:08 into the second, but by the end of that period, Norfolk had extended their lead to 5-1.

Binghamton took the early lead in Saturday night’s contest against Hershey, but following the first-period intermission, and a goalie change from Kelly Guard to Billy Thompson, the Bears scored four goals in under 12 minutes. The Senators’ sole boon of the second period was a goal by Hamel at 17:59, assisted by Tomas Malec and Gregg Johnson. The damage, however, had already been done — to both the scoreboard and the Senators’ psyches — and the Bears logged in three more goals during the third period to run away with an 8-3 win.

Unfortunately, returning home for their final game of the season did not bring the B-Sens any good luck. Binghamton started out slow as Albany took a 2-0 lead in the first period, before Hamel and Steve Martins knotted the score at two. The teams were later tied at four, with under a minute to play in regulation, when Albany scored the go-ahead goal with 42 seconds left on the clock, putting an end to the Senators’ disappointing season in fitting fashion.

A SEASON TO FORGET

After a roller-coaster season, the Binghamton Senators concluded their season with a fifth place finish in the East Division; they were ninth place overall in the Eastern Conference. The team missed the AHL playoffs by seven points, ceding their spot to Division rival Bridgeport.

The Senators proved to be their own worst enemy this season, with the dangerous combination of racking up penalty minutes while not being able to control the penalty kill. With a total of 2,200 minutes, the Senators ranked second in the league for time spent in the box, while ranking 26th out of 27 teams for conquering the penalty kill. On the flip side, the Senators improved on their power plays during the second half of the season and finished sixth in the league.

The B-Sens’ most notable players this season were Denis Hamel, Steve Martins, Jeff Heerema and rookie goalie Kelly Guard.

Hamel had a record season, scoring 56 goals, the eighth-highest total in AHL history. He also tied the league record with 27 power-play goals. With 91 points in 77 games, he finished the season as the sixth-highest scorer.

Martins finished as the 12th top scorer in the AHL with 22 goals, 58 assists and 80 points in 76 games. Heerema ranked 16th with 27 goals, 47 assists and 74 points in 77 games. Guard had a 90.8 save percentage, 25 wins and six shutouts (second-most in the AHL) in 51 games.

Hamel, Martins, Guard and defenseman Filip Novak were called up to the Ottawa Senators for the Stanley Cup playoffs.