The Senators were reminded how tough a shootout loss can be.

The Binghamton Senators battled the Rochester Americans for 60 minutes of regulation and five of overtime play in their first meeting of the season on Saturday, only to lose on the last shot of the shootout.

Rochester’s win proved to be a matter of taking advantage of the many power-play opportunities afforded by eight Binghamton penalties.

“We had a lot of bad penalties and they have a good power-play,” said team captain and left wing Denis Hamel. “We have to work hard and smart.”

Binghamton gave up their first goal, along with their first power play opportunity, as Rochester’s Gregory Campbell scored a shorthanded goal merely 2:11 into the first period. Binghamton responded with a power-play goal scored by Hamel, halfway into the period at 10:33, which was followed closely by a power-play goal from Rochester’s Chris Thorburn at 12:24.

The second period started out slow for the Senators, but picked up after Binghamton’s starting goalie, Billy Thompson, was replaced by goalie Kelly Guard. Guard came in 12 minutes into the second period, shortly after Binghamton had scored its second goal (Hamel, 5:14) and Rochester its third (MacArthur, 7:48).

“Out of four goals, a couple were stoppable,” said head coach Dave Cameron. “There are two reasons why you change a goalie. The first is because you don’t think he’s playing as well as he can, and the second is for momentum change. It was a little bit of both.”

Guard blocked everything shot at him in the remainder of the second period, as well as the third and overtime, helping to even up the score 4-4 as the Senators proceeded with two goals merely nine seconds apart – the first at 17:54 by right winger Brandon Bochenski and the second at 18:03 by center Charlie Stephens.

As neither the third period nor the overtime saw any scoring action, the game went to a five-goal shootout, which Binghamton lost 3-2.

“A shootout takes away the essence of a feeling of a win or a loss,” Stevens said. “We had a great effort, coming back to 4-4, but you never can really feel good about it unless you win.”

The following day, the Senators lost to the Bridgeport Sound Tigers 6-1. The lone goal was scored by Bochenski, while Guard gave up five goals in two periods.

Binghamton’s next game is tomorrow at Hamilton, while its next home game is Friday against Hartford.