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Rats Fall In Syracuse

January 2, 2010 - American Hockey League (AHL)
Albany River Rats News Release


Syracuse, NY- River Rats winger Jerome Samson scored two first period goals to tie the game at 2-2 after the first period, but Syracuse unloaded four third period goals after a scoreless second to earn a 6-3 win Saturday night at the Onondaga County War Memorial at Oncenter.

Defenseman Grant Clitsome broke the tie at 4:23 of the third period on a long shot during a 3-on-2 rush, and Mike Radja redirected a Jordan LaVallee-Smotherman blast past River Rats goaltender Mike Murphy just 48 seconds later for his second of the night and the eventual game-winner.

Albany rookie Chris Terry collected a pretty feed from linemate Nick Dodge and deked his way around Syracuse goaltender Kevin Lalande to make it a one goal game with 11 minutes remaining in regulation, but Syracuse forward Michael Blunden added a pair of late-period daggers, including an empty-netter in the final minute of play, to seal the Crunch Win.

-Tomas Kana and Radja scored just 27 seconds apart in the first period to give Syracuse a 2-0 lead at 6:05, but Samson answered with his 12th and 13th markers of the season. Albany's top scorer's first of the night came 7:50 into the game on a 2-on-1 rush that saw the third year forward's shot pop up-and-over Crunch goaltender Kevin Lalande for an unassisted tally; He connected again at 13:02 on a strong wrist shot from the left faceoff circle, assisted by Tim Conboy and Jacob Micflikier.

Lalande stopped 29-of-32 shots faced as the Crunch improved to 12-19-3-2 this season. Murphy blocked 23-of-29 shots as Albany fell to 19-15-1-2 this year. The River Rats out-shot Syracuse 32-29 and went 0-for-4 on the power play, while the Crunch were 1-for-3 on the man-advantage.

Albany hosts the Adirondack Phantoms in Game Seven of the Time Warner Cable Cup series on Wednesday, January 10, 2009 at 7:00 p.m. River Rats 2009-10 pro-rated season and flexible 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.



American Hockey League Stories from January 2, 2010


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