AT&T Center – If you look at the final score, it would indicate a happy head coach and team. Instead Tom Rowe and the San Antonio Rampage weren’t smiling despite crushing their in-state rivals.
Rocco Grimaldi tallied a franchise-high five points as the Rampage earned a 7-3 victory over the Texas Stars (11-10-8-0, 30 points) in front of 6,974 fans inside the AT&T Center on Friday night.
Grimaldi put San Antonio on the scoreboard first when he put a backhand shot past Texas goaltender Jussi Rynnas to give the Rampage a 1-0 lead at 7:29 of the opening period. Quinton Howden assisted on Grimaldi’s third goal of the season.
Steven Kampfer gave the Rampage a two goal lead when he sent a wrist shot past Rynnas from the circle and Logan Shaw put San Antonio up 3-0 just over two minutes later to give the Silver and Black a three goal lead going into the second period. Shaw’s goal also meant it was the end of the night for Rynnas as Jack Campbell replaced him for the final two minutes of the first frame.
Texas lit the lamp to start the second period as Gemel Smith beat San Antonio netminder Dan Ellis high from the left wing, cutting the Rampage lead to two goals. However, Drew Shore answered with a goal just over a minute later to give the Rampage a 4-1 lead.
Garrett Wilson got in the scoring mix with a goal at 17:03 to extend the lead to 5-1 for the Silver and Black going into the third and final period of regulation.
The Stars got a goal from Matej Stransky as he beat Ellis from the right circle at 5:37 of the final frame to cut the San Antonio lead to 5-2, but Wilson’s second goal of the night put the Rampage back up by six just over three minutes later.
Scott Glennie put home a rebound off the shot of Brandon Ranford to make it a three goal game. Shaw tallied his second goal of the evening with an empty-netter to seal the 7-3 win for the Rampage.
“It was a sloppy game,” San Antonio head coach Tom Rowe said. “The good thing is our guys buried our chances, our shooting precentage went up. So I guess that is the positive.”
Ellis stopped 33 of 36 Texas shots he faced. Rynnas stopped two of the five shots he faced in 18 minutes, while Campbell made 9 saves on the 12 shots in 40 minutes of action.
Texas finished the game 0-for-4 on the power-play and San Antonio was 0-for-1 with their lone man advantage.
The Rampage are now 17-9-2-0 (36 points) on the season and will return to the ice tomorrow night (Saturday) when they welcome the Oklahoma City Barons to the AT&T Center at 7 p.m. to continue their three-in-three weekend.
