Rats Sweep Pens With 5-3 Victory

April 19, 2010 - American Hockey League (AHL)
Albany River Rats News Release


WILKES-BARRE, PA - Zach Boychuk gave the River Rats their first lead of the game at 13:12 of the third period and Jamie McBain blasted his second goal of the night into an empty net to secure Albany's 4-0 series sweep with a 5-3 victory over the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins on Monday night at Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza.

The River Rats will advance to the second round of the Calder Cup Playoffs for the first time since 1998. They'll face the winner of Hershey and Bridgeport's East Division semi-final series, which the defending Calder Cup Champion Bears currently lead 3-1.

Albany erased three one-goal deficits in the game, and claimed their first lead midway through the third period on a strong individual play from Boychuk. The fore-checking first rounder raced behind the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton goal, stripped the puck from goalie Brad Thiessen, and snuck a quick wrap-around into the vacated net for his first career playoff goal. The River Rats defense, led by goalie Justin Peters, held-off the Penguins' late surge and McBain iced the game with a slap shot from behind his own goal line into an empty Wilkes-Barre/Scranton cage.

Fighting for their playoff lives, the Penguins came out of the dressing room on fire after the second intermission and they took their third lead of the game just 28 seconds into the third, when Chris Connor found an unmarked Nick Johnson in the mid-slot for a one-time finish. Jerome Samson leveled the score just 1:21 later for Albany, shoving home a rebound from Mike Angelidis' wrap-around attempt.

The Penguins led 1-0 after the first period, but Oskar Osala's first goal of the playoffs knotted the game at 12:32 of the second, set-up by a sharp 2-on-1 feed from linemate Jiri Tlusty. Wilkes-Barre/Scranton reclaimed its lead with 1:10 remaining in the middle frame on Chris Connor's power play tally from a sharp angle, but McBain responded for Albany just 34 seconds later with a high slap shot from the point that made it 2-2 after 40 minutes.

The River Rats failed to convert on a pair of 5-on-3 power plays early in the contest, and came up empty in the first period despite out-shooting Wilkes-Barre/Scranton 10-1 through the first 10 minutes of action. The Penguins drew first blood at 15:33 of the first frame, when defenseman Chris Lee sent a cross-ice pass from the left point to the bottom of the right faceoff circle for Wyatt Smith to one-time past Peters.

Peters stopped 25-of-28 shots faced in the contest to earn his fourth straight playoff win. Curry allowed four goals on 38 shots faced an took the loss. Albany out-shot the Penguins 39-28 in the contest and went 0-for-7 on the power play, while Wilkes-Barre/Scranton went 1-for-4 on the man-advantage.

River Rats 2010 Calder Cup playoff 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 April 19, 2010


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