The Albany River Rats brief foray into winning came to a crashing halt last night at the Pepsi Arena, as the Hershey Bears topped the Rats 7-4.

It was Hershey's 5,000th game and extended the Bears dominance over the Rats to 16 consecutive regular-season games. The streak dates back to 2004.

Tomas Fleischman opened the scoring for Hershey with a power play goal in the first period. Quintin Laing made it 2-0, 3:48 into the second stanza, but the Rats seemed to come alive as Johnney Boychuk netted a power play goal, with Ben Guite assisting. Matt Murley tied the game up on an even strength goal, but Fleischman come back just 47 seconds later to put the Bears on top again. Kyle Cumiskey tied up the game on the power play with just over a minute to go, and the teams would go into the locker room tied.

"It was a crazy game," Murley was quoted as saying in today's Albany Union Times. "We've been right there with them in all the games we've played except the one down there. We can beat up on that other division (5-1-1 vs. Atlantic teams) as much as we want, but these are the teams we're going to be battling for playoff spots."

But it would be all Bears after that as Dave Steckel and Trevor Byrne both tallied for Hershey and Laing finished up his hat trick with goals two even strength goals.

Shane Willis would try to get the Rats back into the game, netting a goal with assists to David Gove and Murley, but there was only five minutes left to play and the Bears lead was too much to overcome.

Guite's two assists extended his point scoring streak to seven games.

Game Summary
Game Report
Boxscore

In related news, Reggie Berg from the Florida Everblades was named the ECHL Inglasco Player of the Week. The Everblades serve as a shared farm team for the River Rats as well as the AHL Rochester Americans.

Berg closed out the week with two goals and four assists and a plus-1 rating as the Everblades finished with a perfect 3-0-0 record to run the team’s winning streak to six games and help move the team into a first place tie with Texas in the South Division standings.

A native of Anoka, Minnesota, Berg played in the Canes farm system as part of the Lowell Lock Monsters, but has spent most of his career (308 games, 136 g, 169 a) in an Everblades uniform (244 games).

The Everblades also acquired forward Dan Baum from the Phoenix Roadrunners for cash. A seventh round draft pick of the Edmonton Oilers in 2001, Baum spent the entire 2004-205 campaign with the Oilers AHL farm team. Last season he played briefly (24 games) in the ECHL with the now defunct Greenville Grrrowl.

Baum is expected to be in an Everblades uniform for this weekend's home series against the South Carolina Stingrays.