It’s not often that an empty-net goal ends up as the game winner.
Yet this happened on Friday night and the River Rats will take it as defenseman Brett Bellemore scored the deciding goal in the final minute as Albany edged Rochester, 4-3 on Friday in an American Hockey League game at Blue Cross Arena.
With the game deadlocked at two entering the third period, rookie left wing Drayson Bowman scored the go-ahead goal with a power-play tally for Albany at 9:30.
After Rochester had pulled goalie Alexander Salak in the final minute of play for an extra attacker, defenseman Brett Bellemore followed with his unassisted, empty-net goal as he fired a clearing attempt from behind Albany’s goal line which deflected off the glass and into the vacant net at 19:26.
Rochester’s Victor Oreskovich scored at 19:43 to pull the Americans to within 4-3.
Goalie Justin Peters made 26 saves to earn the win for Albany (26-16-3-2), which has won four of their past five games (4-0-1-0) and recorded its fourth consecutive win on the road. Peters (18-11-2) is within one win of tying a career season-high in victories.
Center Mike Angelidis and rookie left wing Chris Terry also scored for the Rats and center Nick Dodge chipped in with two assists.
Salak finished with 23 stops for Rochester (27-20-2-0).
Albany completes its two-game road swing at East Division- and league-leading Hershey tonight at 7.