Ari Ahonen made 36 saves and Pascal Rheaume and Adrian Foster scored two goals apiece as Albany upset Hartford on Friday night, 5-1.
The victory ended the River Rats’ 11-game winless slide (0-10-0-1).
Rheaume (2g, 1a), Dean McAmmond (3a) and Ryan Murphy (1g, 1a) combined for eight points in the second period alone as Albany opened up a 4-0 lead. Rheaume had a brief stint with the Wolf Pack in 2003-04.
Ahonen made 19 of his 26 stops in the third period, losing his shutout bid on Jozef Balej‘s goal with 7:05 remaining.
Jason LaBarbera gave up four goals on 16 shots before giving way to Steve Valiquette. The loss ended LaBarbera’s personal 14-game winning streak, and, combined with Manchester’s win over Worcester, dropped the Wolf Pack out of first place in the overall AHL standings.
Elsewhere on Friday:
Jesse Fibiger scored to give Binghamton its seventh overtime win of the season, 4-3 over Wilkes-Barre/Scranton… Brad Boyes scored twice and Hannu Toivonen made 26 saves as Providence beat Bridgeport, 4-0, in the Bruins’ 1,000th regular-season game… J.S. Aubin stopped 47 shots to help St. John’s past Grand Rapids, 3-2… Yann Danis made 45 saves, but Chris Kunitz‘s goal gave Cincinnati a 2-1 shootout win over Hamilton… Pavel Vorobiev scored twice during a four-goal third period as Norfolk beat Philadelphia, 6-2… Jason Jaffray had two goals in a 6-4 win at Syracuse… Mike Cammalleri and Noah Clarke each picked up a goal and two assists as Manchester beat Worcester, 7-4… Jason Pominville, Thomas Vanek and Chris Thorburn scored in the third period as Rochester escaped with a 4-1 win over Utah… Cam Ward made 38 saves as Lowell shut out Springfield, 2-0… Andrew Hutchinson scored two of Milwaukee’s four power-play goals in a 5-2 win over Chicago… Alex Auld made 38 saves as Manitoba kept rolling with a 3-2 win in Houston.
