The San Antonio gained a split against the Oklahoma City Barons, the top team in the West Division, to remain in fifth place in the Western Conference.
Rampage 4, Barons 2
The Silver and Black won for the third time in their last four outings by opening the back-to-back with a 4-2 victory. Mark Mancari opened the scoring just 1:29 into the game. Corban Knight and Mackenzie Weegar drew the assists on Mancari’s eleventh. Brad Hunt quickly replied for the Barons to tie the game. John McFarland bagged the only goal of the second period, from Rocco Grimaldi and Shane O’Brien to put San Antonio back on top. O’Brien notched a goal of his own one minute into the third period, with the helpers going to Ryan Martindale and Jesse Blacker. Bogdan Yakimov cut the deficit to one when scored a power-play goal at 5:16 with Martindale off for slashing. Connor Brickley completed the scoring an unassisted empty-net marker with 57 ticks left on the clock. Michael Houser made 21 stops to get the best of counterpart Laurent Brossoit. Brossoit finished the tilt with 23 saves.
Barons 4, Rampage 0
Oklahoma City exacted revenge for Friday’s loss with a 4-0 whitewashing of the Rampage on Saturday. Connor Jones, Jujhar Khaira and Bogdan Yakimov scored even-strength goals in the second period. Andrew Miller scored his twenty-first goal to complete the scoring midway through the final frame. Laurent Brossoit made 31 saves to post the shutout while Dan Ellis took the loss. A busy Ellis turned aside 33 of the 37 shots he faced.
The Silver and Black (31-19-5-0) conclude the exhausting 11-game trek with two games against the Charlotte Checkers. on Wednesday and Thursday. before returning home (finally) to face the Iowa Wild.
In personnel news, forward Garrett Wilson was returned to the Rampage while Ryan Martindale was re-assigned to the Syracuse Crunch. Crunch defenseman Matt Corrente will join San Antonio for the remainder of the season.
For more on the Florida Panthers‘ fine AHL affiliate click here to visit the official site. Rampage player stats can be found here.