Jean-Gabriel Pageau scored three goals, including two on the power play, Friday night to lift the Binghamton Senators over the host Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, 5-4, in the game that decided the American Hockey League East Division title.

The teams went into the next-to-last night of the regular season tied for the division lead.

Mark Stone assisted on all three Pageau goals and Andrew Hammond made 43 saves.

Binghamton (44-24-3-5) opened the scoring on Shane Price’s 21st goal of the season less than three minutes into the game. Pageau scored at 17:18 for a 2-0 lead, then added a power-play goal 18 seconds into the third for a three-goal advantage.

David Dziurzynski and Pageau scored to increase the lead to 5-0 by the midway point in the second period.

Adam Payerl broke the shutout and Bobby Farnham added a short-handed goal to cut the deficit to 5-2 after two periods.

The Penguins fired 26 shots on goal in the third period in a comeback attempt that fell a goal short.

Binghamton closed the regular season with a 4-2 win over the Norfolk Admirals Saturday.

Wilkes-Barre/Scranton finished 42-26-3-5 after a 2-0 loss to the Utica Comets Saturday.

WEEK IN REVIEW

Montrose scored two runs in the bottom of the seventh inning April 14 to defeat Mountain View, 2-1, in a battle for the defending champion Lady Meteors finished the week 4-0. Mountain View is 2-1.

In high school baseball, Mountain View and Montrose finished the week 3-1 in Division 4, behind first-place Lackawanna Trail.

Mountain View handed Montrose its first loss April 14 when Chris White threw a four-hitter in a 5-1 victory.

In boys’ track, Montrose defeated Mountain View while Blue Ridge was falling to Lackawanna Trail, breaking a tie at the top of Division 4.

Montrose is 3-0.

In boys’ volleyball, Mountain View kept up its pursuit of unbeaten Western Wayne by rallying for a pair of hard-fought victories.

The Eagles improved to 7-1 in the Lackawanna League heading into Tuesday’s first-place showdown with the Wildcats.

Mountain View outlasted visiting Forest City, 25-27, 25-20, 23-25, 25-22, 15-12 Wednesday, then came from behind a game a night later at Lackawanna Trail, 23-25, 25-22, 25-14, 25-15.

In professional hockey, Jeff Deslauriers and Eric Hartzell of the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins received the Harry “Hap” Holmes Memorial Award for fewest goals allowed.

The award goes to the goalies who appeared in at least 25 games for the team that allows the least goals.

Wilkes-Barre/Scranton gave up 2.34 goals per game.

Although he did not qualify for the award, Peter Mannino had four shutouts and won 11 times in 18 appearances.

The Penguins led the league in fewest goals allowed for the third time in four seasons under coach John Hynes.

COLLEGE CORNER

Montrose graduate Jordan Smith recently completed his sophomore season with the nationally ranked Lackawanna College golf team.

Lackawanna was ranked as high as 10th in the nation among National Junior College Athletic Association Division II teams, went undefeated in the Eastern Pennsylvania Athletic Conference and reached NJCAA nationals in Alabama.

Smith shot 79 in the final round of the NJCAA Division II Tournament, leading the Falcons for the day. He shot 325 for the four rounds to finish 106th in the country.

The Falcons won their seventh straight Pennsylvania-Delaware Cup with the help of Smith’s 78 as the last player to finish, forcing a playoff with Bucks County Community College.

THE WEEK AHEAD

Montrose is at Blue Ridge Monday, April 28 in the Lackawanna Track Conference regular-season finale.

Montrose and Blue Ridge went into the week tied for first in the Division 4 girls’ standings at 3-0.

The Montrose boys were also unbeaten while Blue Ridge (2-1) is one of its top pursuers.

In professional hockey, the rivalry continues in the first round of the AHL’s Calder Cup Playoffs when Wilkes-Barre/Scranton and Binghamton meet in a best-of-five series.

The series begins Friday and Saturday in Binghamton. Game Three is in Wilkes-Barre April 30 with Game Four, if necessary set for May 2. If Game Five is needed, the series will return to Binghamton May 5.

All five games are scheduled for 7:05 starts.

TOM ROBINSON writes a weekly local sports column for the Susquehanna County Transcript. He can be reached online at RobbyTR@aol.com or followed on Twitter at @tomjrobinson.

BIRTHPLACE OF NASCAR SOLD

Birthplace of NASCAR, the Streamline Hotel, 2011

The Streamline Hotel, known as the birthplace of NASCAR, has been sold to Eddie Hennessy, part owner of Pevonia International, a California-based cosmetic company for $950,000.

Hennessy said he intends to restore and modernize the building and turn the hotel into an upscale South Beach-style inn.

“My goal is to clean up the hotel, the block, the drug stuff going around,” Hennessy said. “We're bringing the hotel back to its original state, only more modern.”

Since buying the hotel, Hennessy has installed new management and has started some work on the facelift. He said he doesn't yet know when the major renovation work will begin, but added he looks to get started “as soon as possible.” Hennessy said he plans to start the restoration with the hotel's rooftop bar, which is where in 1947 Bill France Sr. met with race drivers and track owners to form NASCAR. The hotel has a second bar on the ground floor that Hennessy said he intends to turn into a NASCAR-themed lounge.

The hotel will stay open while renovation work is done. After renovating the rooftop bar, Hennessy will start work on the lobby, the hotel's ground-level bar, then the guest rooms. He said he isn't yet sure how much he will invest in the hotel's renovation, but it will be completely modernized.

Prior to the formation of NASCAR, there had been previous discussions about forming a national sanctioning body, but no promoter had come up with the idea of racing “stock” automobiles. Bill France Sr. hit on the idea of racing the cars that people would drive on the street like late model family sedans. Since no other racing organization was using the idea, France figured it might be worth a shot.

While France had promoted other races prior to the formation of NASCAR, the first actual NASCAR race was held February 1, 1949 on the old Daytona Beach road course.

History books tell the rest.

Today, superspeedways like Daytona and Talladega offer ultra-modern facilities for fan experience that wasn’t even dreamed of in 1949.

The 200 miles per hour marker was broken many years ago. The sport now has many millionaire drivers, and each year the Sprint Cup champion is invited to the White House.

Television cameras stream NASCAR-related programs into our homes on an almost daily basis. It took the sport several decades to grow up, but NASCAR is certainly enjoying its well-deserved success.

ROOKIES GOING STRONG

The Sprint Cup rookie battle between Austin Dillon and Kyle Larson deserves recognition.

Austin Dillon struck first, winning the pole for the Daytona 500 in the No. 3 Chevrolet.

Dillon followed up the pole with a ninth-place finish in the Daytona 500. So far, it’s his only top-10 this season.

Kyle Larson took an opposite path to this first open weekend, and his recent counter punches have landed him atop the rookie standings.

Larson, who has won a race in the Nationwide Series this season, opened the Sprint Cup Series with a 38th-place finish because of an accident in the Daytona 500. Then, at Phoenix and Las Vegas, Larson struggled with finishes of 20th and 19th.

But since those season-opening jitters, he has turned it on, finishing in the top-10 in three of the last four races, including a runner-up finish at Fontana and a fifth at Texas.

Those three finishes, and the adjoining bonus points toward the rookie standings that go with them have carried Larson to the top of the Rookie of the Year standings. He currently has 98 points,13 ahead of Dillon.

But Dillon leads in overall points, thanks to few poor finishes (Larson has two finishes outside the top 25; Dillon has none).

Maybe the most interesting nugget of the bunch: If the Chase for the Sprint Cup started today, both Dillon and Larson would be part of the Chase Grid.

Meanwhile, over in the Nationwide Series, young Chase Elliott leads all drivers. But don’t count out the veterans who are just behind him, primarily Regan Smith, Elliott Sadler and Brian Scott.

Smith (13 points back), Sadler (-20) and Scott (-46) all have something on their side that Elliott does not have, and that is experience.

Over the next four races, Richmond, Talladega, Iowa, Charlotte, Elliott has never made a start at either of the tracks. Three veterans have a combined 207 national series starts among them – Smith (52), Sadler (121) and Scott (34).

In last season’s May Nationwide Talladega race, Smith was out front when the race ended prematurely due to inclement weather. In the August 2012 Iowa race, Sadler beat Justin Allgaier to the checkered flag by 0.649 seconds.

Through the first seven races of 2014, Smith is the only race winner of the three, winning at Daytona. He’s followed up his win with six more top-10 finishes and boasts a 7.7 finishing position. Sadler has compiled three top-fives and five top-10s. His best finish of the season came at Darlington, where he finished runner-up to Elliott. Scott’s best outing came in a seventh-place performance at Las Vegas. Although he has no other top-10s this season, his lowest finish is only 17th.

In their last visit to Richmond, the site of the next race, Scott was runner-up, while Smith finished third and Sadler eighth.

Current Driver Standings:

Top-10 Sprint Cup leaders after 8 of 36: 1. Gordon-297, 2. Kenseth-296, 3. Edwards-278, 4. Earnhardt-271, 5. Johnson-270, 6. Kyle Busch-269, 7. Keselowski-246, 8. Logano-245, 9. Newman-236, 10. A. Dillon-235.

Top-10 Nationwide leaders after 7 of 33: 1. Chase Elliott-271, 2. Smith-258, 3. Sadler-251, 4. T. Dillon-248, 5. Bayne-241, 6. Scott-225, 7. Gaughan-215, 8. Kwasniewski-200, 9. Buescher-195, 10. Reed-172.

Top-10 Camping World truck leaders after 2 of 22: 1. Sauter-82, 2. Peters-81, 3. Crafton-78, 4. R. Blaney-78, 5. Hornaday-76, 6. Kennedy-72, 7. Quiroga-72, 8. D. Wallace-61, 9. Jeb Burton-60, 10. Reddick-60.

Weekend Racing: The Cup and Nationwide teams will have night races at the .75-mile Richmond Raceway. Lee Petty won the first race in 1953 in a Dodge. His son Richard Petty holds the record for most wins (13). The trucks do not race again until May 9.

Fri., Apr. 25, Nationwide Series race 8 of 33; Starting time: 6:30 pm ET; TV: ESPNNEWS.

Sat., Apr. 26, Sprint Cup race 9 of 36; Starting time: 6:30 pm ET; TV: Fox.

Racing Trivia Question: What is Robin Pemberton’s official NASCAR title?

Last Week’s Question: Where is Jamie McMurray’s hometown? Answer. It is Joplin, Missouri.

You may contact the Racing Reporter at hodges@race500.com.