River Rats Brawl Past Portland In Buffalo

Published on February 10, 2009 under American Hockey League (AHL)
Albany River Rats News Release


BUFFALO, NY - Nick Dodge scored two goals and Jonathan Paiement scored the only goal of the shootout as the Albany River Rats beat the Portland Pirates 4-3 in a shootout Tuesday night at HSBC Arena.

The Pirates jumped out to an early lead when Tim Kennedy made a beautiful cross-ice pass to fellow rookie Nathan Gerbe for a back-door power play goal at 3:40 of the first period. But the River Rats answered back as captain Tim Conboy froze the Portland defense, then connected with a clever pass to rookie Nick Dodge at the top of the crease who one-timed his shot through the pads of goaltender Jhonas Enroth at 5:48 for his sixth goal of the season. The rest of period flew by fairly uneventfully until the final minute, when a quiet period exploded into a raging melee.

With 25 seconds left in the period Mark Mancari jumped Joe Jensen right off a face off at center ice. The officials separated the two players and Mancari was given a two-minute roughing penalty. As the teams were heading towards center ice for another face off, before the puck was dropped again, another exchange near the Albany bench turned into an all-out brawl involving every player on the ice. After a lengthy fracas, Tim Conboy (minor for roughing & 10-minute misconduct) and Mike Angelidis (two-minute roughing & a game misconduct) took penalties for Albany, while Portland's Nathan Gerbe (two-minute roughing & a game misconduct), Tyler Bouck (ten-minute misconduct) and Tim Kennedy (ten-minute misconduct) all took penalties. The two teams played out the final 25 seconds of the period, but after the horn sounded, another scuffled broke out behind the Albany goal, leading to more penalties. In all 74 minutes of penalties were handed out during the final half minute of the period.

In the second period All-Star Michael Ryan gave the Rats at 2-1 lead when he skated down a long pass from Pat Dwyer, eluded the defense and lifted a shot over Enroth's blocker at 11:45 for his 24th goal of the season. But the Pirates answered back at 18:15 as during a delayed penalty he snapped a wrist shot into the roof of the net to tie the game at 2-2.

In the third period Dodge tallied his second goal of the night as he was in perfect position to tip in Jerome Samson's slap shot for a power play goal at 1:44. Albany held the lead into the final minute of play and looked to be heading to the regulation win, but Pirates captain Tyler Bouck deflected a Zach Tarkir shot from the blue line to tie the game with 29.5 seconds remaining.

After a scoreless overtime where Albany had to kill off a four-on-three power play in the last 25 seconds of the frame, the game headed to a shootout for the second straight time. Portland shot first this time, but it was defenseman Jonathan Paiement who scored the only shootout goal, his second consecutive shootout goal on Enroth. Justin Peters stopped all five shootout attempts to secure the two points for Albany.

Justin Peters earned his 11th win of the season as he made 28 saves on 31 shots through overtime and five-of-five in the shootout as the River Rats improved to 22-23-3-2 on the season. Jhonas Enroth had 24 saves on 27 shots and three-of-four in the shootout as Portland fell to 26-20-1-4 on the year. The Pirates out-shot Albany 31-28 in the game and went 1-for-8 on the power play; the Rats were 1-for-6 with the man advantage.

Next up for the River Rats is a Wednesday, February 11th road game against the Binghamton Senators at 7:05 pm at Broome County Veteran's Memorial Arena. Albany's next home game at the Times Union Center is scheduled for Friday, February 13th as they host the Springfield Falcons for a 7:00 pm face off.

River Rats flex ticket packages and individual game tickets are on sale now at the River Rats office and the Times Union Center Box Office. For more information please contact the Albany River Rats at (518) 487-2244 or online at www.albanyriverrats.com.

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American Hockey League Stories from February 10, 2009


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