AHL Game 14: WBS 4, Albany 1

2 more points, thank you very much.Nothing like an easy game to help you unwind from a tough weekend. An easy game would be an understatement for this one that featured a 4-1 romp of the Albany Devils in which WBS owned nearly every statistical category known. They outshot the Devs 32-19, converted on 2 of their powerplay opportunities compared to Albany's 1, and were just clearly the better team on the ice. The strangest thing: It looked like a whole different story in the beginning.

In front of a pitiful number of just 1478 fans (Albany ranks last in the AHL in attendance), the Devils got off to a hot start. They efficiently killed off an early WBS powerplay, and then struck back with a powerplay goal of their own by Tyler Eckford. This would be about the only good news all night for the Devils' fans, as the Pens took over the game midway through the first and refused to give it back.

Dustin Jeffrey got the Pens on the board midway through the 1st with a powerplay strike to tie the game up and completely shift the momentum in the direction of the visitors. Captain Ryan Craig would capitalize on that momentum early in the 2nd when he tipped in a Chris Collins strike to give WBS the 2-1 lead. Andrew Hutchinson would blast one past Frazee a few minutes later on the powerplay to give WBS a very comfortable 3-1 lead. Eric Tangradi's 2nd goal since returning from PIT would seal the deal after he took a nice feed from Dustin Jeffrey and fired it into the twine. This total domination by one team usually means that the losing team would be the ones involved in the extra-curriculars, but it was Zach Sill of the Pens that started the major conflict of the night. After apparently an entire game worth of becoming "familiar" with each other, Sill wanted a piece of Michael Swift but instead got an entire line full of Devils swarming him out of the crease. Hopefully Zach will have a little sit-down chat with coach Hynes rather than the AHL authorities getting involved.

It wasn't a really busy night for Brad Theissen, who saw only 19 shots all game long. Although sometimes facing a low number of shots can have a negative effect on a goaltender, Theissen looked mostly unphased en route to 18 saves and yet another win to add to his record. It's interesting to see Hynes finally break the chain of Curry-Theissen, and possibly implies that there is a favorite for the sspot