Photo by Texas Stars
The San Antonio Rampage rode on the back of the smallest player on the roster Thursday night in a 5-4 OT win over the rival Texas Stars. Rocco Grimaldi scored twice, including the OT winner, and Spencer Martin stopped 32 shots en route to his team leading 11th win. The Rampage also got goals from Alex Belzile and rookies Dominic Toninato and Nicholas Meloche in the win.
Toninato scored the lone goal of the first period, knocking home a rebound of a Brendan Ranford shot midway through the 1st period. The Rampage carried a 1-0 lead into the intermission despite being outshot 14-7.
After Curtis McKenzie evened up the score early in the second, the Rampage got the next two goals to extend the lead to 3-1 after 40 minutes. After Meloche broke the tie on the power play, Rocco Grimaldi scored one of his best goals in a Rampage uniform, going coast to coast and splitting 3 defenders before beating Stars goalie Landon Bow.
The wild third period began with another PP marker from McKenzie, which was quickly answered by a Alex Belzile wrister. The Rampage carried a two goal lead into the final three minutes, but Texas did what Texas does best, especially on home ice, scoring twice in 35 seconds to tie the game and send it to OT.
After a huge save by Spencer Martin on a McKenzie breakaway to begin OT, Grimaldi would strike again. After gaining the zone, Grimaldi ripped a wrist shot off the goalpost and past Bow to end the game.
Streamables – (Courtesy of Nathan Rudolph @AvalancheReview)
Rampage 1 – Stars 0
1st period (10:18) – SA Dominic Toninato (5) ASST: Brendan Ranford (8), Duncan Siemens (5)
Rampage 1 – Stars 1
2nd period (0:38) – TEX Curtis McKenzie (12) ASST: Travis Morin (26) PP
Rampage 2 – Stars 1
2nd period (12:59) – SA Nicholas Meloche (2) ASST: Toninato (5), Ranford (9) PP
Rampage 3 – Stars 1
2nd period (18:44) – SA Rocco Grimaldi (11) ASST: None PP
Rampage 3 – Stars 2
3rd period (6:18) – TEX McKenzie (13) ASST: Morin (27), Justin Dowling (12)
Rampage 4 – Stars 2
3rd period (8:31) – SA Alex Belzile (4) ASST: None
Rampage 4 – Stars 3
3rd period (17:02) – TEX Gavin Bayreuther (2) ASST: Matt Mangene (9), Denis Gurianov (9)
Rampage 4 – Stars 4
3rd period (17:37) – TEX McKenzie (14) ASST: Andrew Bodnarchuk (7), Max French (3)
Rampage 5 – Stars 4
OT (1:54) – SA Grimaldi (12) ASST: Andrew Agozzino (14)
The Good
- The power play, which has struggled recently, scored twice in four chances on consecutive power plays in the second period.
- Though the Stars did score twice with the mad advantage, the Rampage were able to limit the number of trips to the box, only getting caught four times.
- Grimaldi, with his two goals, moved up to 4th on the Rampage all-time scoring list.
The Bad
- Someone should probably watch some video on the Morin/McKenzie duo, specifically on the PK. McKenzie had several easy looks and capitalized on three of those chances.
- Rampage defenseman Andrei Mironov was called up to the Avalanche on Thursday. With Tyson Barrie out 4-6 weeks and Chris Bigras out indefinitely, the Rampage blue line took a huge hit today.
The Ugly
- The Rampage had a 3-1 lead after 40 minutes and a 4-2 lead with three minutes left in the game. By surrendering two goals in 35 seconds, the Rampage gave a team ahead of them a free point.
Lines (12/27):
Agozzino/Belzile/Grimaldi
Greer/Toninato/Beaudin
Ranford/Girard/Petryk
Vogelhuber/Musil/Nantel
Butler/Mironov
Siemens/Meloche
Geertsen/Warsofsky
Martin
What’s Next:
Fri, Dec 29 (7:30pm) – vs Texas
Sun, Dec 31 (3:00pm) – vs San Diego
Wed, Jan 3 (7:00pm) – vs Tucson
All times local.
All games can be heard on Ticket760 or streamed on AHL Live.