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Rats Get Crunched At Home

February 3, 2010 - American Hockey League (AHL)
Albany River Rats News Release


Albany, NY- Jordan Lavalee-Smotherman broke a 2-2 tie late in the second period and the Crunch added two more goals in the third, to secure a 5-3 win over the Albany River Rats Wednesday night at the Times Union Center.

Derek MacKenzie led Syracuse with a goal and an assist, and Grant Clitsome and Dan Fritsche each chipped in two assists for the Crunch, who scored three power play goals en route to their fourth straight win.

Albany's Jacob Micflikier and Syracuse's Alexander Picard exchanged first period markers for a 1-1 score heading into the second period. The River Rats out-shot their opponents 17-6 in the middle frame, but Syracuse showed a 3-2 lead after 40 minutes of action.

Tomas Kana struck first in that crucial second period with a power play marker at 3:19, which gave the Crunch their first lead of the game River Rats leading scorer Jerome Samson made it 2-2 with a four-on-four strike at 14:10, but Lavalee-Smotherman tipped-home the go-ahead score less than two minutes later and the Crunch never looked back.

MacKenzie and Mike Blunden made it 5-2 with consecutive goals in the third period, before Nicolas Blanchard closed-out the score sheet for the River Rats with his ninth of the season. Bryan Rodney appeared to give Albany life with 2:33 left in regulation, when his dump-in blast from his own blue-line handcuffed Syracuse netminder Kevin Lalande, but the goal, which would have brought Albany to within one, was waived off on an offsides ruling.

River Rats goalie Justin Peters stopped 28-of-33 shots faced in the game and took the loss, as Albany fell to 26-18-3-2 this season. Lalande turned aside 38-of-41 shots in a winning effort, as Syracuse improved to 20-23-3-3 this year. Albany out-shot the Crunch 41-33 in the contest and went 1-for-9 on the power play, while Syracuse went 3-for-9 on the man-advantage.

The River Rats travel to Binghamton on Friday for a 7:05 p.m. match-up with the Senators, before retuning to the Times Union Center on Saturday night for a 5:00 p.m. tilt against the Atlantic Division's Springfield Falcons, followed by the team's annual Ronald McDonald House Charity Jersey Auction. 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.



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