AT&T Center – The San Antonio Rampage took their aggressive third period against their in-state rival Texas Stars on Thursday home to the friendly confines and picked up where they left off the very next night. The result would be the team’s third straight win on home ice.
Bobby Butler tallied two goals as the Rampage defeated the Charlotte Checkers (16-22-5-1, 38 points) 5-2 in front of 7,605 fans at the AT&T Center on Friday night.
San Antonio got the scoring started with John McFarland’s third goal of the season as he sent a wrist shot past Charlotte goaltender Drew MacIntyre to put the Rampage up 1-0. Alex Aleardi tied the game for the Checkers just over two minutes later with a shot past San Antonio netminder Michael Houser. Jesse Blacker put the Silver and Black back in front with a goal 1:43 later.
Butler scored his first goal of the night to give San Antonio a 3-1 lead as he put home a rebound past MacIntyre to put the Rampage ahead by two goals after 20 minutes of play.
Charlotte cut into the San Antonio lead with a Chad LaRose goal 1:01 into the middle frame. Despite the Rampage outshooting the Checkers 11-8 in the period, they would not find the back of the net and took a 3-2 lead into the third and final period of play.
Butler tallied his second goal of the night with another rebound past MacIntyre and Greg Zanon scored an empty net goal to seal the 5-2 win for the Rampage.
Houser made 30 saves on 32 Charlotte shots, while MacIntyre stopped 28 of 32 shots he faced in the loss. San Antonio was 0-for-6 on the power play, while Charlotte could not convert on four man advantages.
The Rampage are now 25-14-4-0 (54 points) on the season and will return to the ice on Tuesday when they travel to the Austin suburbs to face the Texas Stars at 7:30 p.m. inside the Cedar Park Center.
