The AHL affiliate of the Carolina Hurricanes, the Albany River Rats will begin their 15th season of operation starting in the fall of 2007.  The Rats who made the playoffs for the first time in seven seasons as the dual affiliate of the Hurricanes and Colorado Avalanche, will this year serve as solely the Hurricanes affiliate.  The Rats will start their 2007-08 campaign on the road facing off against their I-88 rival the Binghamton Senators on October 6th. 

The Rats home opener at The Times Union Center will be on Saturday October 13th with a 7:00 PM affair with the division rival Norfolk Admirals.   That starts a stretch of four straight home games the last of which is against the intra-state rival Syracuse Crunch on Wednesday October 4th. 

The first weekend of November pits the Rats against the Hershey Bears and Lowell Devils on Friday November 2nd and Saturday November 3rd, both 7:00 PM starts.  The Bears of course eliminated the Rats in last season's Calder Cup playoff in the first round four games to one and the Devils of course were the Rats former parent club.

On Saturday December 8th the Rochester Americans make their lone apperance in Albany.

Moving along to January, Wednesday the 23rd marks the lone apperance of the New York Rangers farm club the Hartford Wolf Pack to Albany.  

The month of February the Rats will host their most games of any month with eight.  While in March the Rats will play six home contests.

In April the Rats close out their home schedule against the division rival Scranton-Wilkes-Barre Penguins on Friday April 11th and close out their 2007-08 campaign on the road against the Philadelphia Phantoms on Sunday April 13th.

Hopefully that will all be followed by actual HOME playoff games at the Times Union Center and not the circus.

For more info on tickets dial the Rat-phone at (518) 487-2244.