River Rats Pound Hershey 7-2

Published on January 14, 2009 under American Hockey League (AHL)
Albany River Rats News Release


HERSHEY, PA - All-Star Michael Ryan recorded his third hat-trick of the season as the Albany River Rats handed the Hershey Bears an emphatic 7-2 beating on Wednesday night at Giant Center.

In their final meeting with Hershey of the 2008-09 regular season, the Rats knew they had to be sharp as they faced a Bears team who had suffered back-to-back losses for only the third time of the year last weekend. But it was Albany who came out with the fire burning as they took an early lead at 5:23 when All-Star Michael Ryan scored on a rebound during a delayed penalty to Herhsey, assisted by Bryan Rodney and Mark Flood. Ryan, the Rats leading scorer, doubled the lead with his second goal of the night, and 17th of the season, as he buried another rebound at 14:44; the goal came off a Colin Nicholson shot, who was credited with the primary assist for his first career AHL point in his AHL debut. A good start turned into a dream period when Albany scored their third goal of the game 40 seconds later. Jerome Samson scored for the third straight game, taking a Dwight Helminen face off win and blasting his shot passed goaltender Simeon Varlamov at 15:24. The River Rats completed the astounding frame at 18:30 when defenseman Josef Melichar scored on a slap shot from the high slot, assisted by Mike Angelidis for a 4-0 lead; it was Melichar's first goal since scoring for the Pittsburgh Penguins during the 2006-07 season.

After a near perfect first period, Hershey replaced Varlamov with backup Daren Machesney in an effort to stop the bleeding. But Albany kept plugging away as Ryan completed his hat trick at 4:38. Rookie Nick Dodge slid by a hip check from Tyler Sloan found some space and then rifled a pass across the ice to Ryan racing to the far post for a clinical finish to make it 5-0. Former River Rats captain Keith Aucoin, who leads the AHL in points and assist, got the Bears on the scoreboard at 15:23, skating around a River Rats defenseman and snapping a wrist shot over the glove of goaltender Justin Peters. But Albany regained their five-goal lead with 13.3 seconds left in the period as Jonathan PAiement's clearing attempt reached Jakub Petruzalek exactly when the right wing stepped out of the penalty box. With a huge head start over the back-tracking Hershey defenders, Petruzalek raced in on a breakaway and tucked a wrist shot through the five hole of Machesney at 19:46, his 11th goal of the year.

One bright spot for Hershey in this one-sided game was the third period goal by Alexandre Giroux. The AHL's leading goal-scorer tallied his 29th goal of the year at 4:24 on a back door pass from Aucoin, extending Giroux's goal-scoring streak to 12 consecutive games. But the River Rats would have the last word in this game as Samson scored his second goal of night, taking a beautiful saucer pass from Pat Dwyer and then faking around Machesney at 10:43 to finish off the Bears 7-2.

Justin Peters earned his seventh win of the season by stopping 36-of-38 shots as the River Rats improved to 16-18-3-2 on the year. Hershey starter Simeon Varlamov took the loss and had 11 saves on 15 shots in 20:00 of action; backup Daren Machesney played the final 40:00 and blocked 9-of-12 shots as the Bears fell to 28-12-0-1. Neither team scored a special teams goal, each squad went 0-for-6 with the man-advantage.

Albany will complete their four-game road trip on Friday, January 16th as they head to Syracuse to battle the Crunch at 7:30 pm at the Onondaga County War Memorial at Oncenter. The River Rats next home game takes place on Saturday, January 17th at 7:00 pm against the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins at the Times Union Center.

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American Hockey League Stories from January 14, 2009


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