Jerome Samson joined the Albany River Rats 30-goal club in style on Saturday night.
Samson scored twice, including the game-winning goal, and added an assist to spark Albany past Norfolk, 4-2 in an American Hockey League game at the Norfolk Scope.
Samson is the eighth River Rat to score at least 30 goals in a season. Pierre Dagenais, who accomplished this twice, is the last Albany player to reach the 30-goal plateau with 34 goals in the 2000-01 campaign and also scored 35 goals the previous season.
Jeff Williams owns the Rats franchise record for goals scored with 46 in the 1998-99 season.
With the victory, second-place Albany (34-24-3-4) moved three points ahead of third-place Norfolk (34-28-3-1) in the East Division.
With the Rats leading 2-1 through one period, Samson tallied his 30th goal of the season 1:55 into the second and assisted on Stefan Chaput’s goal at 5:21 for a 4-1 advantage.
Norfolk center Blair Jones scored at 14:01 of the third period, a goal set up by defenseman and East Greenbush native Matt Lashoff, but the Admirals wouldn’t get any closer.
Left wing Oskar Osala, acquired in a trade with Washington earlier in the week, recorded his first points with Albany with a pair of assists.
Goalie Justin Pogge, assigned to Albany after he was traded to Carolina by Anaheim this week, made 29 saves to record his first win with the Rats.
Dustin Tokarski stopped 24 of 28 shots faced for the Admirals.
In a penalty-free first period, Norfolk center Dana Tyrell struck first with a goal at 10:44.
Samson followed with his goal at 17:23 for Albany and left wing Drayson Bowman staked the Rats to a 2-1 advantage at 18:47.
NOTES — Albany leads the season series 5-0-1-1. … Samson has scored 13 goals over his past 15 games. … Terry has forged a four-game point (3-1) streak. … The Rats play at Wilkes-Barre/Scranton on Wednesday and at Rochester on Friday, before returning to host Wilkes-Barre/Scranton next Saturday and Syracuse next Sunday, both in 3 p.m. starts.