Darren Abate/AHL
The American Hockey League released the regular season schedule this afternoon and Rampage fans can now begin marking their calendars and scheduling babysitters. The Rampage will open up their 17th season at home on October 6th against the Grand Rapids Griffins. The Rampage are 11-5-1 in home openers, including a 2-1 victory over the Ontario Reign last season.
An annual feature of the Rampage season, the hated Rodeo Road Trip, will kick off on Friday February 8th in Des Moines and wrap up 19 days later in the newest AHL city, Loveland, Colorado. In that span the Rampage will play ten games–six within the division–in six different states.
The 2019 season will wrap up with the Rampage and rival Stars playing three games in four nights. With a little bit of luck and good hockey, those games could go a long way in determining playoff seeding for one, or both, clubs.
Instead of repeating what is already out there, I will post this graphic sent out by the team. (From sarampage.com)
Highlights:
- With the move to the Central Division, the Rampage now have a much more “normal” schedule than in years past. With the exception of February (Rodeo) and March (recovery from Rodeo), the remaining months have fairly equitable home/road splits.
- As seen above, 28 of 38 home games fall on a weekend. On the flip side, 26 of 38 road contests fall on weekend dates.
- The Rampage have a total of four dreaded “three-in-three’s”, three of which are played completely on the road. Two of them are on back to back weekends in November/December.
- Rampage fans won’t have to wait long to see some of their former favorites as the Colorado Eagles will come to town the second weekend of the season for a two game set starting October 12th.
As always, all Rampage games can be heard on Ticket760 or streamed on AHLLive.