With two weeks remaining in the Binghamton Senators’ 2008-2009 AHL season, the struggling Philadelphia Phantoms were trailing in their rearview mirror, with Binghamton destined to make the playoffs for the first time in four years.

But after the regular season came to a close, it was Binghamton who was left in the dust, surrendering the fourth and final playoff seed in the AHL’s Atlantic Division to the red hot Phantoms, who only lost twice in their last nine games.

On March 27, the Binghamton Senators had a six point lead on Philadelphia in the standings, but fell into a rut the following week with a pair of losses. Binghamton took a 3-2 overtime loss to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton and a 4-2 loss to Rochester, who finished 28th out of 29 AHL teams with 66 points.

Binghamton picked up two home wins in the week, 3-2 against Rochester on March 28 and 5-2 against Albany on April 4, but it wasn’t enough to safely distance themselves from Philadelphia.

On April 8 in one of the season’s most dramatic games, Binghamton found themselves down 3-2 with under a minute remaining in the third period. With four seconds left on the clock, B-Sens forward Zack Smith knocked in a rebound off a Mattias Karlsson shot to send the game into overtime, where Binghamton’s Peter Regin won the game 32 seconds into the extra frame.

The B-Sens season was on the line going into a matchup against Norfolk on April 10, but after the final buzzer sounded, the scoreboard read 6-1 Norfolk, officially eliminating any chance of a Binghamton postseason run.

Norfolk, another of the AHL’s lower-ranking teams, managed to put five pucks past Jeff Glass before the B-Sens could find their way onto the scoreboard.

Binghamton finished the season with 91 points, but became the first AHL team in history to miss the playoffs with such a high record.

After the game, the team presented their annual player awards, with the designation of Most Valuable Player going to winger Greg Mauldin.

Mauldin, who finished the season with 24 goals and 51 points, has shown growth in Ottawa’s farm system after finishing last year with only 33 points.

Matt Carkner won the Defenseman of the Season honor while Zack Smith and Mattias Karlsson were named the Offensive and Defensive Rookies of the Year.

The team also raised $3,004 for the families of the victims of the American Civic Association shootings by auctioning off three commemorative game-worn jerseys following the awards ceremony.