Bruins Keep Back River Rats 3-1

Published on December 27, 2007 under American Hockey League (AHL)
Albany River Rats News Release


ALBANY, NY - Pascal Pelletier scored two goals to lead the Providence Bruins to a 3-1 win over the Albany River Rats Thursday night at the Times Union Center.

After weathering a couple minutes of pressure from the team with the most points in the AHL, the River Rats struck first, when Jakub Petruzalek collected a back-door pass from Jamie Johnson and snapped a wrist shot that fought through the left side of goaltender Tuukka Rask and into the net. The goal was Petruzalek's second of the season, assisted by Johnson and Bryan Rodney at 5:46 of the first period. But the Bruins countered with a five-on-three power play goal in the closing seconds of the period. Pascal Pelletier scored his 18th goal of the season with two seconds remaining on the clock, one-timing the puck from just below the right face off dot through the pads of goaltender Michael Leighton at 19:58.

Providence out-shot Albany 11-5 in the second period, but the goaltenders Leighton and Rask dominated the action in the middle frame.

Pelletier broke the tie at 4:16 with his second goal of the night, and 19th of the season, snapping a fierce wrist shot up into the top corner over Leighton's blocker to put the Bruins ahead 2-1. Albany tried to mount a comeback, even pulling their goalie for the final 90 seconds. But they ran into an unfortunate bounce when Matt Hendricks' clearing attempt from his defensive zone took a deflection off the center ice glass and rolled into the River Rats empty net at 19:13, capping off the scoring.

Tuukka Rask stopped 23-of-24 shots to pick up his 10th win of the season in goal for Providence, helping the Bruins improve to 25-5-2-0 on the season. Michael Leighton suffered his 14th loss in goal for Albany, while making 27 saves on 29 shots. The River Rats were 0-for-3 on the power play, falling to 18-15-0-2 on the season, while Providence ended the game 1-for-3 on the man advantage.

The River Rats continue their two-game home stand on Saturday, December 29th at 5:00 pm as they host the Philadelphia Phantoms, who sit ahead of Albany in first place of the East Division. Sunday Albany will travel to Canada to battle the Toronto Marlies at 4:00 pm at the Ricoh Coliseum.

Partial season tickets packages and flex tickets for the 2007-08 River Rats season are on sale now. For more information please contact the Albany River Rats at (518) 487-2244 or online at www.albanyriverrats.com.

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American Hockey League Stories from December 27, 2007


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