The San Antonio Rampage quickly righted the ship after getting swept in Cleveland by the Lake Erie Monsters with back-to-back wins over the Texas Stars and Charlotte Checkers. The Silver and Black are currently sitting in fifth place in the AHL’s Western Conference.
Rampage 3, Stars 2 (OT)
The visiting Sliver and Black overcame a two-goal deficit to beat Texas in Cedar Park on Rocco Grimaldi’s overtime tally. The goal came at the 5:03 mark of the extra session and was unassisted, The Stars took the lead on goals from Julius Honka, at 1:49 of the first, and Travis Morin, at 10:59 of the second. Morin’s marker came with Texas on a power play, thanks to a Vincent Trocheck holding minor. Jesse Blacker got the Rampage on the board with 1:18 remaining in the middle frame with a power-play goal. Grimaldi and Trockheck picked up the helpers on Blacker’s fourth. Connor Brickley lit the lamp midway through the third period to even the game. Steven Kampfer and Trocheck combined on the assists. The two helpers gave Trocheck 10 points in 11 AHL games this season. Dan Ellis made 27 stops to get the win while Jussi Rynnas tunred away 42 shots in a fine effort for the Stars.
Rampage 5, Checkers 2
The Silver and Black used a three-goal opening period as springboard to a 5-2 win on home ice over Charlotte. John McFarland got the party started with a goal at the 4:32 mark. Shane O’Brien drew the only helper on McFarland’s third of the season. The Checkers quickly evened things up on a Alex Aleardi tally. Jesse Blacker scored from Rocco Grimaldi at 7;55 to restore San Antonio’s lead. Bobby Bulter bagged his eighteenth, with assists going to Vincent Trocheck and Greg Zanon, to put San Antonio up by two. Charlotte’s Chad LaRose scored the only goal of the second frame to reduce the deficit to one. In the third, Butler put the game out of reach, scoring from Grimaldi with 6:44 remaining in regulation. Zanon notched a shorthanded goal into an empty net to ice the game. Michael Houser stopped 30 shots to post the win while Drew MacIntyre made 28 saves for the Checkers.
The Rampage (25-14-4-0) kick off the February slate with a home-and-home against, with you guessed it, the Texas Stars on Tuesday and Thursday. The Silver and Black will remain in San Antonio for a Saturday night meeting with the soon-to-be-deceased Oklahoma City Barons.
For more on the Florida Panthers‘ fine AHL affiliate, click here to visit the official site. Rampage player stats can be found here.