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Rats Crunch Syracuse 5-2

November 18, 2009 - American Hockey League (AHL)
Albany River Rats News Release


ALBANY, NY - River Rats rookie Drayson Bowman scored two goals and first-year forward Zach Boychuk added a pair of assists as Albany defeated the Syracuse Crunch 5-2 Wednesday night at the Times Union Center.

The River Rats followed-up a scoreless first period with four-straight goals to take control of the game and goaltender Mike Murphy stopped 29-of-31 shots faced in the contest as Albany held-on to improve to 9-8-0-2.

Second-year forward Nick Dodge started the scoring at 5:55 of the second period, moments after a River Rats power play expired, collecting a loose puck from a tangle of skates and backhanding it over Syracuse goalie Kevin Lalande's out-stretched leg. Albany doubled its lead just 1:29 later, when Brad Herauf floated a cross-ice pass to Bowman, who ripped a screamer off of the crossbar and in. Bowman added his second of the night later in the period on the power tally, collecting a high Jamie McBain slap shot off of the end-glass and batting it in from the side of the net for his sixth of the year.

River Rats scoring leader Jerome Samson made it 4-0 Albany just 1:56 into the third period, using a nifty spin-move to walk the puck out in front of the net from behind the goal line and then pushing-home his own rebound. Crunch points-leader Alexandre Picard put his team on the board with a quick rebound at 4:02 of the final frame and Brock McBride made it a 4-2 game with a low wrister at 18:22, but it was too-little-too-late as Albany's Steven Goertzen added an empty-net goal to seal the game.

Crunch goalie Kevin Lalande allowed four goals on 44 shots as Syracuse fell to 5-8-2-2. The River Rats out-shot the Crunch 44-31 and went 0-for-4 on the power play; Syracuse was 0-for-3 on the man advantage.

Albany plays two road games this weekend, beginning on Friday, November 20th against the Manchester Monarchs at 7:30 p.m. The River Rats then head to Binghamton for a 7:05 faceoff with the Senators on Saturday, November 21st. 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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