Black Bears: Game 1

The Binghamton Black Bears announced that Tyson Kirkby, the captain of the Black Bears will return for his fifth season and likely third as captain of the team.

Kirkby owns all the offensive categories for the Black Bears franchise records with 164 GP, 115 Goals, 154 Assists, 269 Points, 323 PIMS and he also leads the franchise with 33 Power Play Goals. Last season with the Black Bears, Kirkby played in 46 games and registered 37 goals, 60 assists for 97 points. In the playoffs he played in 8 games and registered 5 goals and 4 assists for 9 points. The Captain has led his team to back to back championships, which was the first time in the FPHL's history that a team has gone back to back.

"I'm excited to be back for another year with the guys, last year was great being the favorites and hopefully we are able to grab another one. Two's a fluke and three is a streak." - Tyson Kirkby

This starts the "signings season" for the Black Bears which should see anywhere from 1 to 2 signings a week over the summer. News about the schedule should be coming soon.

The Binghamton Black Bears announced that the first home game of the 25-26 season will be October 10th vs. the Watertown Wolves. In this game like last season vs. the Wolves, the Black Bears will raise their 24-25 Championship banner.

Last season on the home opener, the Black Bears lost to the Wolves just after raising the franchises first Commissioner's Cup banner. The rest of the schedule should be approved and out sometime next week or the first week of July.

The Binghamton Black Bears netminder Connor McAnanama has played in 15 playoffs game in his pro-career, which is 6th all-time in Binghamton hockey history. Even though C-Mac has only played in 15 playoff games it still ranks him, 6th just Ken Holland (36), Peter Sidorkiewicz (28), the late Ray Emery (22), Robin Lehner (19) and Mark "Trees" LaForest (19). With his 909 minutes played, that also put him 6th behind the same fore-mentioned net-minders. When it comes to wins, Ken Holland is 1st all time with 16 wins, then C-Mac and Robin Lehner both have 14 wins tied for second. You can give the nod to C-Mac for having done it in only 15 games vs. Robin's 19 games.

Connor's ranks #1 in Save % with .947, only Jamie Ram matched his but it was only 1 game in a relief effort. Only 3 players have a sub 2 Goals Against Average, again Jamie Ram with 1.76, Taylor Joseph a 1.83 with the Black Bears in their 2nd season and then 1.65 for Connor McAnanama who has played more games and has the best overall GAA of the 38 net-minders who have laced up the skates to defend the pipes for a Binghamton team in the last 52 years. Lastly Connor and Robin are #1 and #2 in shutouts in the playoffs with 4 for C-Mac and 3 for Lehner, cementing that if you have great goal-tending and team defense, winning championships are a destiny.

In only 15 games played, C-Mac's performance has changed the landscape of Binghamton Hockey history, and if a three-peat were to happen, his #'s will likely only get better.

The Power Play Post Show, hosted by Bob Howard, returns for its 14th season featuring guests like Blake Tosto, Cameron Clark, Chris Mott, and Brooks Hill. More guests from the Binghamton Black Bears and FPHL are coming soon.

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