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River Rats February Update
Written by: Grethe Kvernes on 03/03/2004 
On February 17th, the struggling Albany River
Rats made a most unexpected change: they replaced Dennis Gendron, their coach
over the past season and a half, with Robbie Ftorek, the coach who brought the
River Rats to the 1995 Calder Cup championship. As Ftorek’s name was announced
at the next home game a mere 24 hours later, the crowd rose to their feet and
cheered, clearly showing their appreciation and approval of the change.
Although the Rats lost the first game, the change paid off as the Rats went
1-0-2-1 in the next four games, including their first road win in 14 games.
Ftorek will undoubtedly continue to excel at developing individual talent, but
whether or not he will be able to make the River Rats a successful team once
again won’t really be known until next season. The River Rats are currently
last in the East Division of the AHL, and are 12 points out of the last playoff
spot. With only 20 games remaining in the season, hockey fans in
Matus Kostur (0 wins, 4 losses, 1 tie, 3.98 goals against average)
For the majority of the past two and a half seasons,
goaltending duties for the River Rats have been shared between former
Ilkka Pikkarainen (46 games played, 5 goals, 5 assists, -15, 74 penalty minutes)
The season was more than half over before Finnish winger Ilkka Pikkarainen finally found the back of the net. With the confidence of having the first goal behind him, Pikkarainen quickly added more goals and points, and his confidence continues to increase with every game. While his offensive contributions are important, Pikkarainen’s most important asset may be his uncanny ability to get under opponents skin. However, his temper often gets the better of him, and Pikkarainen needs to curb himself and learn to avoid taking costly and unnecessary penalties.
Ahren Nittel (34 games played, 1 goal, 0 assists, -10, 20 penalty minutes)
Ilkka Pikkarainen may have struggled to score his first AHL goal, but rookie Canadian winger Ahren Nittel struggled even more. The Rats had played 57 games, and Nittel had appeared in 34 of those games before he finally put up a point, scoring a goal against Alex Auld of the Manitoba Moose. Nittel was drafted by the Devils in part because of his imposing stature (6’3”, 225lbs), but in the AHL, Nittel is not one of the biggest players anymore, and he has struggled to adjust his game accordingly. His overall play has slowly been improving, and he should only continue to get better as he gets more ice time.
On March 1st, the River Rats lost defense prospect Victor Uchevatov as he was part of the trade that sent former River Rat Christian Berglund to the Florida Panthers in exchange for Russian center Victor Kozlov. Uchevatov has been assigned to the San Antonio Rampage, the Panthers AHL affiliate.