The San Antonio Rampage won three more games this week, all on the road, to lay claim to the top spot in the AHL’s Western Conference with 90 points. The Silver and Black finished up March with an impressive 11-1-0-1 record, the best month in franchise history. The red-hot club has now won eight games in a row, also a new franchise-record.
Rampage 4, Admirals 3 (SO)
San Antonio rallied from a three-goal deficit to best the Admirals 4-3 in shootout Wednesday night at the BMO Harris Bradley Center. The win, the club’s sixth in a row, moved the surging Rampage to the top of the AHL’s Western Conference. Austin Watson and Joe Pendenza notched first period goals to put the Admirals up by two. Colton Sissons ended Rampage starter Michael Houser‘s night at the 5:20 mark of the middle stanza. Houser left the game with 14 saves on 17 shots. Rocco Grimaldi started the comeback with his twelfth goal, from Greg Zanon and Connor Brickley, 3:08 into the third period. Dany Heatley scored 5:47 later to cut the deficit to one, with the assists going to Grimaldi and Brickley. Defenseman Blake Parlett lit the lamp at the 11:40 mark to even the game. Quinton Howden drew the lone assist on Parlett’s eighth of the campaign. San Antonio out-shot Milwaukee 6-3 in overtime, but couldn’t come up with the deciding goal, so the game went to a shootout. Grimaldi scored in the first round, and after two denials by Sam Brittain, Logan Shaw put the game away in the third round. Brittain stopped all 13 shots he faced to pick up his first AHL win in his first-ever appearance. Marek Mazanec finished with 36 saves for Milwaukee.
Rampage 1, Wild 0 (OT)
Brett Olson scored 15 seconds into overtime and Michael Houser bounced back from getting the hook against Milwaukee with a 26-save shutout as the Rampage won its franchise-record tying seventh straight game with a 1-0 decision over Iowa in Des Moines. Shane O’Brien drew the only assist on Olson’s fourteenth of the season. The Wild’s John Curry finished with 32 stops in the hard-luck loss.
Rampage 4. Wild 1
San Antonio set a new franchise-record, winning their eighth in a row, with a 4-1 victory over Iowa on Saturday. Sam Brittain made his first career AHL start and stopped 31 shots for his second win of the week. The Rampage took advantage of a double-minor on the Wild’s Kurtis Gabriel to jump out to a 2-0 first period lead. John McFarland notched the first power-play goal at 12:04, from Corban Knight and Bobby Butler. Dany Heatley bagged the second man-advantage marker 26 seconds later, with the assists going to Mark Mancari and Brett Olson. After a scoreless second period, Butler scored his team-leading twenty-sixth goal at 4:22 of the final frame, unassisted. Defenseman Jesse Blacker set up Wade Megan‘s shorthanded tally 9:01 later. Iowa finally got one by Brittain with 1:18 left in regulation when Olivier Archambault dented the twine, breaking his shutout bid. Johan Gustafsson took the loss for the Wild, finishing with 27 saves on 31 shots.
The Silver and Black (42-20-5-1) get a nice break before welcoming in the Adirondack Flames for a pair of games on Thursday and Saturday.
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