CALDER CUP FINALS GAME 5 POSTGAME REPORT
JUNE 4, 2011: BNG 4, HOU 2

BINGHAMTON, New York --- Zack Smith scored twice for the Senators and Robin Lehner turned aside 41 shots in goal as the Binghamton Senators edged the Houston Aeros 4-2 in Game 5 of the 2011 Calder Cup Finals before 4,727 fans at the Broome County Veterans Memorial Arena on Saturday night.

The victory gave the Senators a 3-2 series lead as the series shifts back to Houston. Game 6 is Tuesday, June 7 at 7:05 p.m. CST. Game 7 is scheduled for June 9 at 7:05 p.m. if necessary. Tickets for both games at Toyota Center are available now. Game 7 tickets will be refunded in the event the contest does not take place.

JM Daoust scored twice for the Aeros and Matt Hackett made 23 stops in goal.

The teams traded first period goals, starting with Binghamton’s Corey 4-on-4 tally at the 9:19 mark. Locke tapped home a backdoor feed from Andre Benoit for his third of the postseason and second of the series.

Houston answered 1:49 later on Daoust’s first of the game as the result of a second attempt after Daoust’s first wraparound chance was denied by Senators goaltender Robin Lehner.

The Senators wasted little time in responding, with Erik Condra beating Houston backstop Matt Hackett on a breakaway with a backhand deke move at 12:17.

Daoust struck again with seven seconds left in the opening stanza when he tipped home a Marco Scandella shot from the left circle to knot the game at 2-2.

The Aeros outshot Binghamton 13-8 in the middle frame, but the Senators scored the only goal of the period on Smith’s power play tally with nine seconds left in the period.

Smith added a second goal to make it a 4-2 Senators game at the 15:56 of the third.

BOMB DROPPINGS
Maxim Noreau is third all-time in Aeros postseason games played (48), fifth in points (22) and tied for third in assists (16)… Several players tied the franchise record for most playoff games in one season (23 games) tonight… Colton Gillies is tied for fifth all-time for most goals in one postseason (7)… Patrick O’Sullivan is tied for fourth all-time for most points in one postseason (17)… Justin Falk is tied for fifth all-time in penalty minutes in one postseason (33)… Matt Hackett’s start in Game 5 tied Johan Holmqvist’s single-season Aeros playoff record for starts (23)… Holmqvist owns the AHL record for minutes played in a single postseason (1498)... Hackett was 150 minutes away entering tonight… Ondrej Pavelec has the AHL record for GP by a goalie (24)... Pascal Morency made his first appearance of the 2011 postseason, replacing Cody Almond in the lineup… Daoust became the 33rd Aeros player to score twice in a postseason game.
AEROS STARTERS
F – Gillies, Ortmeyer, Peters
D – Noreau, Bagnall
G - Hackett

AEROS SCRATCHES
Fraser, Penner, Lofquist, Foucault, Bulmer, Almond, Campbell, Fredheim, Buck, Kassian, Broda, Cuma

NEXT GAME
Calder Cup Finals – Game 6
Tues. June 7, 7:05 p.m. (CST)
at Houston

DECIDING GOAL
Smith (19:51, 2nd)

POWER PLAYS
HOU: 0/4
BNG: 1/4

GOALIES
HOU: Hackett (23/27, L)
BNG Lehner (39/41, W)

SERIES
BNG leads 3-2