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Albany River Rats Time Line
1993 | 1994 | 1995 | 1996 | 1997 | 1998 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002
1993
May - The Albany, NY franchise announces a 3-year working agreement with the New Jersey Devils and a 3-year agreement with Knickerbocker Arena.
7/29/93 - The River Rats logo is unveiled at a press conference at the Knick. Designed by McKinley-Griffen of Ganesvoort, it features a winking, sneering Rat breaking through ice.
10/8/93 - The Rats play their inaugural regular season game at Rochester, beating the Americans 6-2. Bill Armstrong scores the first goal in franchise history.
10/9/93 - The River Rats crush the Americans 9-3 in their first home contest at Knickerbocker Arena. Jim Dowd scores the Rats first goal at home.
1994
4/15/94 - The Rats skate in their first-ever playoff contest, a 3-1 road victory over the Portland Pirates.
10/7/94 - River Rat Goaltender Corey Schwab shuts out the Springfield Falcons 2-0 for the first shut out in club history.
1995
2/18/95 - The previous attendance record is shattered in a home game against the Adirondack Red Wings as a full house of 13,941 fans watch the Rats win 5-3.
5/26/95 - The Rats shutout the Fredericton Canadiens 3-0 to win the Calder Cup. Albany becomes the second team in history to win the Calder Cup in the same year as their parent club won the Stanley Cup.
10/7/95 - The River Rats raise the banners signifying the 1995 Calder Cup victory and open their title defense with a 6-1 win over the Hershey Bears.
11/1/95 - 12/27/95 - The Rats set a record for the longest unbeaten streak in club history, establishing a 21-game mark going 19-0-2. The streak ranks 2nd all-time in American Hockey League history.
1996
2/28/96 - Steve Sullivan registers his team record third hat trick of the season in a 6-4 win against Carolina.
4/13/96 - The Rats win their league leading 54th game in a 5-2 victory against the Providence Bruins. The total is second most in AHL history.
4/24/96 - Coach Robbie Ftorek wins his second consecutive Louis A.R. Pieri Award as AHL Coach of the Year.
1997
2/22/97 - 3/12/97 - The River Rats post the longest win streak in team history with their ninth straight victory, six of which came on the road.
4/22/97 - The Rats crush Adirondack 7-3, in Game Three of the Divisional playoffs, setting three playoff records: most goals (7); most pp goals (5); and most goals in a period (5).
1998
2/14/98 - The River Rats honor their 1,000,000th fan prior to a 3-1 win over the Adirondack Red Wings.
3/5/98 - Goaltender Peter Sidorkiewicz earns his 165th AHL victory, catapulting him past Sam St. Laurent for tops in League history. "Sid" would finish his career with 177 AHL victories.
4/1/98 - Brendan Morrison scores all 5 goals against Hartford in a 5-2 win. Morrison would later be named to the '97-'98 Bauer All-Rookie Team.
11/21/98 - Goaltender Frederic Henry blanks the Adirondack Red Wings 3-0 in the Rats only shutout of the season.
1999
3/31/99 - C John Madden and LW Jeff Williams set franchise records in a 3-1 win over Hershey. Madden sets the Rats single-season assists mark as Williams sets the single goal-scoring mark. Madden finishes the season with new River Rats records of 60 assists, 98 points and 334 shots on goal. Williams closes the campaign with an AHL and career-high 46 tallies.
2000
3/15/00 - Goaltender Frederic Henry saves 60 shots against the Hartford Wolf*Pack, setting a new club record in a 2-1 overtime loss at Pepsi Arena.
4/9/00 - Captain Steve Brule passes Geordie Kinnear on the Rats' all-time games played list and ends his stint in Albany with 394 GP while also extending his own records for career goals (155), assists (214), and points (369).
2001
3/25/01 - Jean-Francois Damphousse and rookie stopper Pascal Gasse record the first ever combined shutout in team history as the pair split duties in a 5-0 victory over the Louisville Panthers at Pepsi Arena. Damphousse was knocked from the game due to injury during the second period. Gasse was thrust into his first and only AHL action.
12/19/01 - The River Rats score five times in the first period en route to posting an 8-6 victory in the highest scoring game in team history. Three different players (Bruce Gardiner, Mikko Jokela and Michael Rupp) record three point efforts, and the game spurred Jokela on to Sher-Wood AHL Player of the Week honors.
2002
3/16/02 - The team honors Assistant Coach and the longest tenured captain in team history, Geordie Kinnear, with a banner emblazoned with an image of his Number Four jersey raised to the Pepsi Arena rafters.
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