Jon Matsumoto scored two goals and goaltender Scott Clemmensen turned aside 24 of 25 shots to lead the San Antonio Rampage to a 3-1 win over the Rockford IceHogs Saturday night at the AT&T Center in front of a crowd of 5,455. The win evened San Antonio’s record at 1-1.
After a scoreless opening period, Matsumoto scored on a power play 47 seconds into the second to give the Rampage their first lead of the young season. Defenseman Colby Robak and captain Greg Rallo picked up the helpers on the goal.
Rockford struck back early in the third period to even the game on a Alex Broadhurst wraparound goal at the one minute mark.
Matsumoto tapped in the game-winner at 11:47 with assists going to Quinton Howden, who finished the game with 8 shots on goal, and Philippe Cornet.
Alex Petrovic completed the scoring with 43 seconds remaining in the contest. Rookie center Vincent Trocheck picked up his second assist of the season on the empty-net marker.
The determined Rampage fired a franchise record 56 shots on goal to make Clemmensen, who is rehabbing after offseason knee surgery, a winner in his first AHL action since the 2008-09 season when he appeared in 12 games for the Lowell Devils.
The win came one day after the Rampage were beaten 2-1 by the Chicago Wolves in their season-opener.
Despite registering 42 shots on goal, the Rampage were generally ineffective during the game.
Corey Locke opened the scoring for the Wolves at the 3:19 mark of the first with assists going to Michael Davies and Brent Regner.
Chicago extended their lead 45 seconds into the second period when Dmitrij Jaskin beat Dov Grumet-Morris unassisted.
The Rampage picked up the pace in the final period and finally got one past Wolves’ goaltender Jake Allen when Colby Robak fired home a power-play goal at 10:04 with the helpers awarded to Vincent Trocheck and Greg Rallo.
Unfortunately, the Rampage would send the crowd of 5,651 home disappointed as they failed to come up with the equalizer.
Grumet-Morris made 21 saves in the losing effort.
The Rampage will get a chance for revenge when the two teams meet again Saturday night in Chicago.