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BINGHAMTON, NY — It’s only fitting that it took the overtime period to settle things between the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins and Binghamton Senators on Friday.

After all, both teams scored all four goals during regulation on the power play, so why not score the game winner during a three-on-three?

Barry Goers took the initiative to make sure the overtime ended in the Penguins favor when he snared a Binghamton clearing pass, which led to the game winner from Kael Mouillierat. The 3-2 win is the fourth straight for the Penguins, the last two coming against the Senators. With Hershey also winning in overtime on Friday, they remained tied with the Penguins in win percentage (.638), but Wilkes-Barre/Scranton holds the advantage in the season series.

Binghamton started Friday’s power play trend in the second half of the first period when Michael Keranen scored with the man advantage to put the Penguins down 1-0.

After the Penguins hit three posts, including one each for rookie Jake Guentzel and Teddy Blueger, Tom Kostopoulos evened up the score when he scored a power-play goal in front to make it 1-1.

“Good things happen if you keep shooting,” head coach Clark Donatelli said. “We were a little bit fancy and had to simplify our game a little bit.”

The second period was also dictated by power play successes for both teams.

Binghamton started it off at the midway point after the Penguins were whistled for a pair of minors that gave the Senators 54 seconds with a two-man advantage. The Penguins killed off the five-on-three, but the Senators capitalized on the second half of the power play to take a 2-1 lead.

The Penguins went on their third power play late in the period, and once again it was Kostopoulos making it count. Carter Rowney threaded a nice pass to Kostopoulos at the corner, who tapped in the backdoor feed to make it 2-2 and erase a Binghamton lead for the second time.

“I’m happy for our power play. They were working it well and got big goals when we needed them,” Donatelli said. “Our power play is clicking.”

Binghamton came close to gaining a 3-2 lead seven minutes into the third period when Max McCormick fired a shot from the corner of the crease. Jarry closed the five-hole to make the save but lost track of the puck as Binghamton tried to poke it in before it was swept out of the crease.

With the power play accounting for all the scoring, the Penguins came up with a big penalty kill in the middle of the third period when Binghamton went on the man advantage looking to gain the lead. Jarry turned aside several shots and the Penguins killed off the power play to get back to even strength.

The Penguins also had their share of chances in the final period. The best one came late when Jarrett Burton snagged a clearing pass and dished down low to Tom Sestito, who redirected the puck on net but into the pads of goaltender Matt O’Connor.

In overtime, Goers won it for the Penguins when he picked off a pass in the offensive zone from Bailey, skated down to the crease and banked a shot under the crossbar that Mouillierat put home for the 3-2 win.

“I like our resiliency to bounce back. We were pretty confident on the bench,” Donatelli said. “The guys just believed they could win and we were very loose going into the overtime.”

NOTES

– D Reid McNeill (illness), F Patrick McGrath, F Dustin Jeffrey, D Ryan Parent, F Tyler Biggs (injury) F Sahir Gill (injury) and F Dominik Uher (injury) were scratched for the Penguins.

– Jeffrey missed the game to be with his wife and baby boy, Nash, who was born on Thursday night.

– Pittsburgh reassigned F Oskar Sundqvist to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton on Friday. Ty Loney was subsequently reassigned to Wheeling.

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By Tom Venesky

[email protected]

Penguins 3, Binghamton 2 OT

Penguins 1-1-0-1-3

Binghamton 1-1-0-0-2

First Period

Scoring – 1. BNG, Michael Keranen 12 (Akeson) power play 13:49. 2. WBS, Tom Kostopoulos 18 (Mouillierat, Rowney) power play 17:39. Penalties – WBS, Kostopoulos (hooking) 3:46; WBS, Andersen (high-sticking) 13:24; BNG, Lepine (hooking) 16:00; BNG, Tuzzolino (slashing) 17:27.

Second Period

Scoring – 3. BNG, Casey Bailey 9 (Akeson, Leduc) power play 11:46. 4. WBS, Tom Kostopoulos 19 (Rowney, Guentzel) power play 17:55. Penalties – WBS, Andersen (slashing) 9:31; WBS, Oleksy (tripping) 10:38; BNG, Harpur (high-sticking) 17:38; BNG, Dziurzynski (roughing) 18:33.

Third Period

Scoring – Penalties – WBS, Sestito (fighting) 1:06; BNG, Stortini (fighting) 1:06; WBS, Plachta (tripping) 8:07; WBS, Archibald (fighting) 17:16; BNG, Rupert (fighting) 17:16.

Overtime

Scoring – 5. WBS, Kael Mouillierat 17 (Goers, Plachta) 2:12. Penalties – None.

Shots on goal

Penguins – 9-11-11-3-34

Binghamton – 3-7-8-1-19

Power-play Opportunities

Penguins – 2 of 4

Binghamton – 2 of 5

Goaltenders

Penguins – Tristan Jarry 16-9-3 (17 saves – 19 shots)

Binghamton – Matt O’Connor 8-17-3 (31-34)

Starters

Penguins – G Tristan Jarry, D Steve Oleksy, D Niclas Andersen, LW Mattias Plachta, C Carter Rowney, RW Tom Kostopoulos

Binghamton – G Matt O’Connor, D Jerome Leduc, D Guillaume Lepine, LW Jason Akeson, C Phil Varone, RW Casey Bailey

Three Stars

1. WBS, Kael Mouillierat (game-winning goal) 2. WBS, Tom Kostopoulos (two goals) 3. BNG, Jason Akeson (two assists)

Referee – David Banfield, Dave Lewis. Linesmen – Jud Ritter, Jim Harper

Attendance – 3,143