Hershey Edges River Rats 4-3 In Shootout

October 31, 2008 - American Hockey League (AHL)
Albany River Rats News Release


ALBANY, NY - Former River Rats captain Keith Aucoin scored the deciding shootout goal to lift the Hershey Bears to a 4-3 win over the Albany River Rats on Halloween night at the Times Union Center.

The River Rats faced an elite offense in a Hershey team that carried both the American Hockey League's leading goal scorer in Alexandre Giroux and the league's top point scorer in Keith Aucoin. The two scorers connected for the games first goal at 17:45 when Giroux buried a rebound into an open net passed stranded Albany goaltender Justin Peters; it was Giroux's league-leading ninth goal of the season. The River Rats out-shot the Bears 14-11 in the period, but find the net against rookie goaltender Bobby Goepfert, who was making his AHL debut.

Early in the second period the Rats brought the costumed crowd to its feet by killing off a lengthy five-on-three penalty. However, shortly after the kill Hershey's Andrew Gordon squeezed a sharp-angle shot through Peters' pads to make it a 2-0 game at 13:48. At 18:26 Jerome Samson, in his first game back from an ankle injury suffered in Carolina's training-camp, put Albany on the board with a power play goal. Samson ripped a wrist shot into the top left corner of the net, beating Goepfert to the near post for his first goal of the season; Marc Cavosie and Mark Flood assist on the goal.

Hershey extended their lead to 3-1 at 3:01 in the third when Oskar Osala one-timed a shot from the low slot passed Peters on a clever pass from Kyle Wilson. But the Rats responded again when Mike Angelidis drove the net and Pat Dwyer poked in the rebound, making it a 3-2 game at 11:31. Bears forward Jay Beagle took an interference penalty with 16.9 seconds left in regulation to give Albany a last ditch power play. With Peters pulled for a six-on-four advantage, Bobby Hughes tied the game with 0.7 seconds remaining, finishing off a beautiful cross-ice pass from one timer from Jakub Petruzalek for his first goal of the season.

A scoreless five-minute overtime led Albany to its first shootout of the season. Petruzalek scored first in the third round for the River Rats, but Giroux tied things for the Bears in the forth round. When Goepfert stopped Pat Dwyer's fifth round attempt, the game then rested on Aucoin's stick. The former Albany captain rose to the occasion, snapping his shot through the five-hole to seal a 4-3 shootout win.

Making his AHL debut, Hershey goaltender Bobby Goepfert stopped 25-of-28 shots through 65 minutes of action and blocked 4-of-5 shootout attempts to record his first career AHL win as the Bears improved to 8-2-0-0 on the season. Albany starter Justin Peters made 31 saves on 34 shots 64:09 of action, but stopped 3-of-5 in the shootout as Albany fell to 1-4-1-1. Hershey out-shot the Rats 35-28 and went 0-for-8 on the power play; Albany was 2-for-7 with the extra skater.

Albany will hit the road for back-to-back games this weekend in Connecticut. Saturday night the River Rats travel to the XL Center for a 7:00 pm face off with the Hartford Wolf Pack. Sunday, November 2nd Albany heads to Bridgeport for a 4:00 pm face off with the Sound Tigers at the Arena at Harbor Yard.



American Hockey League Stories from October 31, 2008


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