Penguins snipers Mark Letestu and Chris Conner exchanged shootout markers with River Rats rookies Drayson Bowman and Jamie McBain for a 2-2 draw after four rounds. Nick Johnson beat River Rats goalie Justin Pogge on the first shot of the fifth round and Penguins netminder John Curry made the decisive stop on Bryan Rodney's next attempt to earn the extra point for Wilkes-Barre.

Albany led 2-1 midway through the game, but the Baby Pens scored two goals late in the second period to take their first lead. The River Rats pulled their goalie for an extra attacker in the final minute of regulation to turn a 5-on-4 power play into a 6-on-4 advantage, and Chris Terry set-up Samson's game-tying 32nd goal of the season at 19:51.

Samson had also scored the game's first goal at 11:20 of the opening period, connecting on a textbook give-and-go with center Nick Dodge on a River Rats power play. The Penguins answered with a power play tally of their own at 17:40 of the same stanza, when Tim Wallace knocked in a Ben Lovejoy rebound from close range.

Albany took its second lead of the game at 8:35 of the second period, when Rodney employed his patented dump-in pass off of the end-boards to a streaking Steven Goertzen, who cut across the front of the net and left a rebound for Terry to swat home out of mid air. The Penguins responded again with a quick shot from Nick Johnson at 14:10, and then took the lead at 17:06 on a long wrist shot from Dustin Jeffrey that bounced in off of a River Rats defenseman.

Curry stopped 31-of-34 shots faced in the game and 3-of-5 shootout attempts to earn the win as the Penguins improved to 32-29-1-2 this season. Pogge made 32 saves on 35 shots faced and turned-aside 2-of-5 shootout attempts in a losing effort, as the River Rats fell to 34-24-3-5 this year. Wilkes-Barre/Scranton out-shot Albany 36-34 in the game and went 1-for-7 on the power play, while the River Rats were 2-for-5 on the man-advantage.