Sharks Chomp River Rats 4-1

Published on January 9, 2009 under American Hockey League (AHL)
Albany River Rats News Release


ALBANY, NY - Thomas Greiss made 36 saves as the Worcester Sharks beat the Albany River Rats 4-1 Friday night at the DCU Center.

The Sharks had penalty trouble in the first period, but still managed to out-shoot Albany 18-14. Worcester took the lead at 15:27 when Andrew Desjardins shot from the right wing boards deflected off a River Rats defenseman and into the net, assisted by Claude Lemieux and Mike Moore. With less than three minutes remaining in the period the Sharks took two quick penalties and gave Albany a 1:20 of a five-on-three power play. But goaltender Thomas Greiss was sharp in goal, especially when he denied Rats' All-Star Michael Ryan's one-timer with the top of his shoulder. At the other end Justin Peters had to be very good to keep the Sharks from racking up goals early in the game, but after twenty minutes Worcester carried a 1-0 lead into the intermission.

If the River Rats felt they were unlucky to concede the first goal, the Sharks had to feel doubly cursed when Albany tied the game late in the second period. After 18 minutes of balanced action, Jamie McGinn took a slashing penalty to give the Rats a late power play. In one of the more bizarre ricochets in hockey, Jerome Samson's dump-in from the right point caught a partition in the boards in the right corner and redirected right towards the goal, hitting off Greiss and crossing the goal line at 19:04. The power play goal was Samson's eighth of the season, assisted by Jonathan Paiement, and perhaps more importantly was his first goal since missing five games with an injury.

Lukas Kaspar broke the tie at 4:41 of the third period, cashing in on a failed clearing attempt by slapping the puck into the top right corner of the net. Just 2:03 later it was 3-1 Sharks as Matt Fornataro was in good position on the back post to knock in a deflected shot from Kaspar to double their lead at 6:44. Albany pressed to tie the game, pulling Peters with 2:18 left in the game, but Riley Armstrong would score an empty net goal to cap off a 4-1 Worcester win.

Sharks goaltender Thomas Greiss earned first star honors by stopping 36-of-37 shots to help Worcester improve to 20-17-0-1 on the season. Rats starter Justin Peters stopped an impressive 38-of-41 shots, but again was the hard luck loser as Albany fell to 14-18-3-2 on the year. Worcester out-shot the River Rats 42-37 and went 1-for-4 on the power play; Albany was 1-for-6 with the man-advantage.

Albany wraps up their weekend road trip on Saturday, January 10th as they face the first place Hershey Bears for a 7:00 pm puck drop at the Giant Center. 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 9, 2009


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