SAN ANTONIO – The San Antonio Rampage suffered their first loss of the 2018-19 season on Tuesday night, falling 4-3 to the Milwaukee Admirals (2-0-0) in front of 3,675 fans at the AT&T Center.
Milwaukee jumped out to a two-goal lead thanks to key mistakes from San Antonio. Anthony Richard got ahold of a loose puck and skated down the ice, beating Rampage goaltender Ville Husso at 3:53. Two minutes later with San Antonio on a 5-on-3 power play, Tyler Gaudet capitalized on a Rampage turnover and beat Husso.
Zach Sanford got the home side on the scoreboard when he banged home a rebound past Milwaukee goaltender Tom McCollum at the 9:05 mark, cutting the deficit to one. Klim Kostin knotted the score at two with his first of the season just over two minutes later, beating McCollum by sliding the puck underneath him.
Rocco Grimaldi burned his old team just 13 seconds into the final frame as he converted a 2-on-1 chance that went past Husso, putting Milwaukee back on top 3-2. Emil Petterson added to the Admirals’ lead just over a minute later as he put a shot high and out of Husso’s reach. Mackenzie MacEachern got one back for San Antonio but that would as close as the Rampage would come, falling 4-3.
Husso finished with 20 saves on 24 shots, suffering his first loss of the season.
Here is what went good and bad for the Rampage, as well as two standout players: Mackenzie MacEachern and Klim Kostin.
The Good:
- After an awful opening 20 minutes that saw the Rampage give up two goals on two separate breakaway attempts, Drew Bannister’s team came out firing in the second period. San Antonio answered back with two goals in just over two minutes, a great response after that first period.
- San Antonio’s offense stays hot after scoring four goals in Saturday’s season opener, they put up three in a loss to Milwaukee. Over the first two games, the Rampage are averaging 3.5 goals per game.
The Bad:
- Jake Walman had a night to forget on Tuesday. His miscue on the puck led to the opening goal for Milwaukee. He was sloppy in his puck handling and looked a tad lost out there.
- The Rampage defenseman were not as sharp on Tuesday as they were in the season opener. Only Chris Butler and Joey LaLeggia were solid on defense for San Antonio.
- Turnovers hurt the Rampage on Tuesday, two leading to goals. And one of them helped set up the fourth Milwaukee goal of the night.
Two Standout Players
Mackenzie MacEachern
MacEachern scored his first goal of the season Tuesday to help get the Rampage closer to tying the game in the third period. He displays his grit and aggressive play on the ice, getting the ‘dirty’ goals.
In Tuesday’s loss, he crashed the net and banged home a rebound to light the lamp for the Rampage. For Bannister’s team to have a player like MacEachern on his team will likely make the Rampage a dangerous offensive team as the season goes forward.
Klim Kostin:
The Rampage got a goal from Klim Kostin on Tuesday night, his first of the season.
Kostin was a key player for San Antonio last season and judging by the first two games of the season, will play a big part in the offense for the Rampage as the season goes on. Bannister’s team has gotten to pucks in parts of Tuesday’s game and its likely we can expect that more and more this year.
UP NEXT:
The Rampage are now 1-1-0 (2 points) on the season and will return to the ice on Friday when they welcome the Colorado Eagles (0-1-1, 1 point) to the AT&T Center at 7:30 p.m. CT.
