AHL Playoffs: Johnson’s strong effort not enough in game 1 loss

Albany 4 – Wilkes Barre 3

Nick Johnson scored at even strength and short-handed but it wasn’t enough for the Wilkes Barre/Scranton Penguins who lost a thrilling 4-3 opening game to the Albany River Rats in the East Division Semifinals Wednesday night.

Brad Thiessen who beat out John Curry for the starting job in Wilkes Barre, made 34 saves in his playoff debut.

Wilkes Barre fell behind 3-1 until Mark Letestu made it 3-2 early in the third and Nick Johnson scored his second goal of the game at 18:38 of the third and appeared to have sent the game to overtime.

However, Albany’s Nick Dodge capped off a wild finish to the game, scoring his second goal of the game with just 51 seconds remaining to give Albany a 4-3 lead and the win.

The young Penguins are under-dogs in the series.

Top prospect Eric Tangradi made his playoff debut and was a minus-1 and had two shots on goal.

Defenseman Ben Lovejoy who appears primed to start the 2010-2011 season with the big club, had an assist and was a plus-2 on the night.

Game two is Friday, April 16th at 7:00 pm.