ALBANY, NY – Philadelphia scored all five of their goals in the first period, including two from David Laliberte, as the Phantoms beat the Albany River Rats 5-4 Saturday evening in front of 5,279 at the Times Union Center.

Albany got off to a quick start and scored the game’s first goal just 2:43 into the first period when defenseman Brett Carson collected a pass from Bryan Rodney at the face off circle and unleashed a scorching wrist shot for his fifth goal of the year.  The Phantoms answered later in the frame by scoring two goals less than a minute and a half apart.  The first came on the power play at 7:28 when David Laliberte deflected a shot from defenseman Michael Ratchuk passed Albany goaltender Daniel Manzato.  Jonathon Kalinski then gave Philadelphia a 2-1 lead with a hard shot from the low slot that got through Manzato’s leg pads.  River Rats winger Jerome Samson knotted the game at 2-2 when his power play scorcher bounced off of the cross-bar, off of the back of Phantoms goalie Jean-Sebastien Aubin and into the goal; rookie Nick Dodge and defenseman Noah Babin assisted on Samson’s 19^th of the year and third in as many games.  In the final three minutes of the opening period Philadelphia exploded for three goals in the span of 1:31, starting with Laliberte’s second of the game at 16:31, followed by a Danny Syvret tally at 17:17 and a Jeff Szwez goal at 18:02. Albany goaltender Justin Peters replaced starter Daniel Manzato following the fifth Phantoms goal and the intermission horn sounded with Philadelphia ahead 5-2.

The River Rats made it a 5-3 game midway through the second period when center Bobby Hughes, in his second game back since being injured in the team bus accident on February 19^th, knocked home a rebound from the mid-slot as he was falling to the ice.  Hughes almost scored again on a power play in the final two minutes of the period, but he rang a back-door one-timer off the post and Albany headed to the locker room still down by two.

The River Rats really put on the pressure in the third period and it paid off with 8:39 still to play.  Seconds after Albany forward Tomas Pospisil cranked a slap shot off of the crossbar; River Rats captain Pat Dwyer deflected a Brett Carson shot behind Aubin to cut the deficit to one.  Albany out-shot the Phantoms 13-8 in the final 20 minutes of play and threatened to tie the game with an extra attacker in the final minute of action, but the River Rats could not find the equalizer before the end of regulation.

Philadelphia goaltender Lean-Sebastien Aubin stopped 25-of-29 shots faced and earned the win as the Phantoms improved to 33-27-2-2 on the season.  Albany starting goaltender Daniel Manzato allowed five goals on 16 shots in 18:02 of ice time and took the loss as the River Rats fell to 29-30-3-3 on the year; backup goalie Justin Peters stopped all 17 shots faced in his 40:32 of relief work.  Philadelphia out-shot Albany 33-29 in the game and went 2-for-6 on the power play; the River Rats were 1-for-5 on the man advantage.

Albany returns to action on Monday, March 16^th as they host the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins at 7:00 pm at the Times Union Center for a make-up game originally scheduled for February 22^nd.