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River Rats Lose To Crunch 5-2

February 28, 2009 - American Hockey League (AHL)
Albany River Rats News Release


SYRACUSE, NY - Alexandre Picard had two goals and one assist as he led the Syracuse Crunch to a 5-2 win over the Albany River Rats Saturday night at the Onondaga County War Memorial at Oncenter.

For the second straight game the River Rats had a very energetic start, putting the Crunch back on their heels from the opening whistle. Six and a half minutes into the first period Albany received the first power play and one minute later they got 46 seconds of a five-on-three when right wing Mike Blunden was called for slashing. The Rats bombarded the net and had several fantastic scoring chances; Dwight Helminen rang a wrist shot off the cross bar and at least three players fanned on back-door passes with open nets a the far post. Late in the first period Syracuse received back-to-back power plays and they cashed in on their second opportunity when Alexandre Picard scored at 18:07. Picard skated down the right wing, turned the corner on an Albany defender and slipped a backhand shot through the pads of goalie Justin Peters for a 1-0 Crunch lead. Overall the River Rats out-played Syracuse in the opening period, a fact that was not reflected by the scoreboard.

In the second period it was the Crunch who turned up the intensity and took over the aggression. On the very first shift of the frame Albany failed to dump the puck into the Syracuse zone as they tried for a line change and the Crunch counter-attacked, ending with Picard knocking in his own rebound a mere 35 seconds into the period; his second goal of the night made it 2-0 Crunch. Midway through the period Syracuse capitalized on a fortunate timing play as defenseman Dan Smith got the puck from his own goal line and fired it up the ice right as teammate Mike York was stepping out of the penalty box. York caught the pass, raced in on a breakaway and scored on Peters for a 3-0 lead at 11:05. The River Rats suffered another defensive breakdown late in the period as Blunden made a cross-ice pass from the right wing boards right to unmarked defenseman Nick Holden for an easy tap-in goal at 18:13 and a 4-0 advantage. But the Rats failed to quit and with just 29 seconds remaining in period ECHL call-up Aaron Clarke made a nice pass from the right circle to Mike Angelidis in the slot; Angelidis snapped a wrister by the glove of goalie Sebastian Dahm for his 13th goal of the year, cutting the lead to 4-1.

In the third period could not build on the momentum of their goal and the Crunch regained a four-goal lead at 6:56 as Derek MacKenzie got behind the defense and beat Peters to make it 5-1. The highlight of the third period was a rare fight involving one of two goaltenders. Albany's netminder was crashed into by Picard, giving the Rats a delayed power play, but as Peters skated towards the bench something made him stop, turn around and get right into the face of Picard. A split second later the gloves were off and Peters dished out plenty of heavy right hands, in the process giving Picard a Gordie Howe Hat Trick (goal, assist and fight). In the final minute of play Jerome Samson scored his 16th goal of the season at 19:46, assisted by Aaron Clarke and Nick Dodge, but it was too little, too late as Albany lost 5-2.

Sebastian Dahm made 26 saves on 28 shots to record the victory as the Crunch improved to 28-26-3-2 on the season. Justin Peters finished with 24 saves on 29 shots and five penalty minutes as the River Rats fell to 25-27-3-3. Syracuse out-shot Albany 29-28 in the game and went 1-for-5 on the power play; the Rats were a disappointing 0-for-8 with the man-advantage.

Note: Albany is now winless in their last eight games at the War Memorial (0-6-1-1); their last victory in Syracuse came on March 2, 2007.

Albany now returns home on Sunday, March 1st against the Norfolk Admirals; a 5:00 pm face off at the Times Union Center. It is their first game at home since last week's bus crash and the team will honor the emergency personnel who assisted the team after the accident.

River Rats flex ticket packages and individual game tickets are on sale now at the River Rats office and the Times Union Center Box Office. For more information please contact the Albany River Rats at (518) 487-2244 or online at www.albanyriverrats.com.

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