Albany Ties Franchise Record With Seven-Goal Winning Margin

ALBANY, NY - Mike Angelidis scored twice and Pat Dwyer posted a four-point game as the Albany River Rats demolished the Norfolk Admirals 8-1 Friday night at the Times Union Center.

Pat Dwyer sported the captain’s “C” for the first time this season, and the veteran leader put his team on the board early when Admirals goaltender Kari Ramo mishandled a dump-in and left Dwyer with an open net at 4:30. River Rats leading scorer Jakub Petruzalek added to his points total at 13:14 when he found a streaking Jerome Samson at the last possible moment of a 2-on-1 rush for a 2-0 lead. Midway through a period that had already seen two emotional fights, Norfolk forward Jay Rosehill jumped Albany’s unsuspecting assistant captain Mike Angelidis from behind and was assessed 27 minutes in penalties, including a game misconduct. The River Rats ended up with a seven-minute power play and they scored just nine seconds in when rookie Stefan Chaput banged home a Brett Carson rebound at 13:32. Albany could not convert during the remaining five minutes of power play action, but headed to the locker room up 3-0 after out-shooting the Admirals 19-6.

Midway through the second period Petruzalek found himself flying into another 2-on-1 rush, this time he found Michael Ryan with a laser pass at the far post to make it 4-0; Angelidis also assisted on Ryan’s fourth of the year at 9:21. After facing a light workload in the first period River Rats goalie Daniel Manzato faced 18 shots in the second and stopped all but one of them; Norfolk’s Mathieu Curadeau cut into Albany’s lead with a power play goal at 12:48, assisted by Blair Jones.

The Rats blew the game wide open in the third period, scoring a season-high four times in the final frame. Four minutes into the third Angelidis sent a shot wide of the goal, but collected his own rebound off of the end-boards and beat Ramo to make it 5-1. Just 53 seconds later Samson set up Dwight Helminen in between the hash marks to finish off a 3-on-1 rush to make it 6-1 Rats at 5:06. The rout was on when Dwyer notched his fourth point of the night at 11:17, setting up Angelidis’ second goal of the game to make it 7-1 River Rats. Backup goalie Mike McKenna replaced Ramo in net with 8:40 remaining in the game and just 39 seconds after his entrance he allowed a goal to rookie Nick Dodge off of a rebound from recently signed forward Patrick Bordeleau; the assist was Bordeleau’s first career AHL point and nicely capped off his AHL debut in the 8-1 runaway.

River Rats goaltender Daniel Manzato posted another stellar performance as he stopped 36-of-37 shots to win his third consecutive game, helping Albany improve to 8-9-3-2 on the season. Admirals goalie Kari Ramo allowed seven goals on 40 shots in 51:14 of play and replacement Mike McKenna stopped 2-of-3 shots in the final 8:40 as Norfolk fell to 7-13-1-4. The River Rats out-shot the Admirals 43-37, and went 1-for-4 on the power play; Norfolk went 1-for-5 with the man advantage.

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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