For the second time this series, the Albany River Rats dropped an overtime decision to the Hershey Bears, this time by a score of 6-5 on Tuesday night at the Times Union Center. The loss really puts the team behind the eight ball as they now face a 3-0 deficit in the series.
The home team jumped out to a 2-0 lead on goals by Zac Dalpe and Oskar Osala. After the Bears made the score 2-1, Drayson Bowman would score his third goal of the playoffs to put his squad back ahead by two.
But Hershey has proven over and over again to be a very resilient bunch and they came back to tie the score just like they have in every game this series.
After the Bears tied it at 3-3, Zac Dalpe scored his second of the night to reclaim the lead, but again Hershey would score to tie it up, 4-4. Mike Angelidis then scored making the score 5-4, giving Albany fans a reason to think that the Rats might finally defeat their rivals.
But it was not meant to be as the AHL's leading scorer, Alexandre Giroux, tied it again at 5-5 with less than four minutes remaining.
The Bears outshot the Rats 16-7 in the sudden death period and Jay Beagle netted the winning shot for the visitors.
For more details about the game, check out River Rats.com.
The two teams do battle once again in Albany on Thursday night and I will be there to provide coverage. We will have an open game thread as usual, but I will be "live blogging" from press row for this one. I'll also try to get an interview or two from a couple of the "Junior Canes" and other background information if possible. Stay tuned for more details.
Also last night, the Detroit Red Wings eliminated the Phoenix Coyotes, 6-1 in their deciding matchup. The Wings will go on to face San Jose while Vancouver takes on Chicago.
The East opponents are yet to be determined as all eyes will be on the Washington/Montreal game Wednesday night. It should be a great one. We will have an "open thread" for the game up and running at 6.
I will be on the road and out of touch most of the day Wednesday, but Cory and HM2 will be keeping an eye on things and will break the important Hurricanes news if anything erupts. Later!