ALBANY, NY - Rob Hennigar tallied two assists in his River Rats debut and goaltener Mike Murphy made 30 saves as Albany defeated the Syracuse Crunch 4-2 Wednesday night at the Times Union Center.The River Rats out-scored Syracuse 2-1 in both the first and second periods and Albany held-on through a scoreless third to improve to 9-4-0-1 at home.
The River Rats drew first blood on the game's first power play at 5:28 of the opening period, when Bryan Rodney fed defensive partner Brett Carson for a one-timer that rebounded to River Rats leading scorer Jerome Samson for his eighth of the season. Matthew Pistilli doubled the home team's lead at 12:38, when his centering feed bounced through traffic and fluttered into the short side of the net; Hennigar, one day after being recalled from the ECHL's Florida Everblades, and Brad Herauf assisted on the play. Syracuse made it a 2-1 game with 1:43 left in the frame, as Bates Bataglia deked around a Murphy poke-check and backhanded the puck over the goalie's outstretched leg pad.
Hennigar converted on a beautiful 2-on-1 feed from Chris Terry just 1:30 into the second period, but the goal was overturned as it was ruled to have hit the post. The linemates would not be denied, as less than two minutes later they raced in on another 2-on-1 rush and Terry buried Henigar's rebound for a 3-1 Albany lead. The Crunch responded with an odd-man rush of there own at 14:27 that saw Alexandre Picard freeze Murphy with a shot fake, before threading a back-door pass to Maksim Mayorov. Defenseman Jamie McBain blasted his third of the season for the River Rats with less than a minute to play in the second for the game's final marker.
Albany goaltender Mike Murphy faced 32 shots and earned the win as the River Rats improved to 10-10-0-2 this season. Syracuse goalie Kevin Lalande allowed four goals on 29 shots and took the loss as the Crunch fell to 6-10-2-2. Syracuse out-shot Albany 32-29 and went 0-for-3 on the power play; the River Rats were 1-for-2 on the man-advantage.
Albany travels to Norfolk for a pair of weekend games against the Admirals on Friday, November 27th and Saturday, November 28th, both at 7:15 p.m. River Rats 2009-10 season and flex ticket packages are now on sale at the River Rats executive offices at the Times Union Center, by calling (518) 487-2244 or by logging onto www.albanyriverrats.com.
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