San Antonio’s third Cool School Education Day game must have caused Dov Grumet-Morris to miss his morning coffee. For the first time this season, Grumet-Morris allowed three goals in a single period. Judging by the collective Rampage effort in the first period, it’s not surprising that the game started at 10:30 am, as San Antonio had only 3 shots on net.
The Aeros got on the board first before Alexander Petrovic answered back with his second goal of the season, assisted by Jared Gomes and John McFarland. The Aeros would respond less than a minute later before penalties would again get the better of the black and silver, with four different penalties being awarded in the final five minutes of the first. The Aeros scored the third goal of the period on the powerplay, and after 20 minutes had a 3-1 lead with a 13-3 shot advantage and a full two minute powerplay thanks to bench minor for unsportsmanlike conduct.
The second period represented a completely different game. San Antonio’s PK was aggressive, heralding a comeback of sorts with Jon Rheault netting his second shorthanded goal of the season, fourth overall. Drew Shore would be credited with his first assist of the night with Colby Robak collecting the secondary. Ten minutes into the second, former Aeros forward, back after missing three games, Casey Wellman tied the game, assisted by Tyson Strachan and James Wright. However, poor defensive effort would cause back-to-back Houston goals, the latter being on the powerplay, and the Rampage would end the second down by two again, 5-3.
Jon Rheault scored his second goal of the season to cut the lead to one, almost three minutes into the third. Shore picked up his second assist as captain Nolan Yonkman was credited with the secondary. But the Aeros would again score back-to-back goals, which caused the Rampage to lose their cool: in the final 8 minutes, four penalties were called on the hometown club, with Yonkman receiving two of them. Howden would score his first professional goal, shorthanded, with – again – Shore getting his third assist on the night.
The Rampage lost 7-5 but outshot the Houston in the final 20, 14-5 (Houston held the advantage overall 30-26). Full box score here.
- Grumet-Morris allowed all seven goals in 30 shots (.767 Sv%), the most of his AHL career. Before he allowed only six goals in five games. While the defense didn’t help him out, this is easily the worst game he’s ever had in a Rampage jersey (including the other seven goal game he had in October last season).
- The Rampage powerplay went 0-for-5. The man-advantage squads have scored only three goals on 51 opportunities (15.7%). The Rampage PK scored two shorthanded goals in Tuesday’s game, and has three shorties this season.
- Shore’s 3 assists give him the San Antonio scoring lead (2G-7A-9P).
- Aeros’ head coach John Torchetti had the same role with the Rampage in 2003-04, and took on interim duties for the Panthers in 27 games that year. Mike Van Ryn, one of Houston’s assistant coaches, was a member of the Rampage in 02–03, and a Panther until 2008, when he was traded to Toronto for Bryan McCabe. The other assistant is Sebastien LaPlante, who played for the San Antonio Iguanas.
The Rampage travel to Austin on Thursday to face the Texas Stars at 8:30 PM.
ECHL
The Cincinnati Cyclones continued their hot start with a 3-2 win over the South Carolina Stingrays. Garrett Wilson and David Pacan were the only Panthers prospects who scored, with a single assist.