SAN ANTONIO – The San Antonio Rampage changed their identity to the Los Chimuelos but not even that could turn their luck around.
Despite taking a two-goal lead in the first period, the Chimuelos fell 3-2 to the Texas Stars (11-16-3) in a shootout before 7,436 fans at the AT&T Center on Friday night.
The loss drops San Antonio to 0-9 in games beyond regulation this season and 1-4-1 in their last five games overall.
“We’ve got to get back to our identity and how we play,” Rampage Head Coach Drew Bannister said. “Tonight wasn’t our team at all and not how I would expect our team to play.”
The Chimuelos came out aggressive and opened the scoring before fans could even settle into their seats. Jordan Nolan found Nathan Walker, who snapped the puck home from the right circle to put the home side up a goal at 1:42. Klim Kostin extended the San Antonio lead to two goals with a wrist shot from the left circle off the feed from Derrick Pouliot eight minutes later. The power-play tally is the fourth goal for Kostin on the season.
Texas got one back with tons of pressure in the San Antonio zone in the second period. The Stars cut San Antonio’s lead in half with a power-play goal from Anthony Louis. He slid the puck past Chimuelos goaltender Ville Husso at 7:38 for his fourth goal of the season as Texas outshot San Antonio 10-5 in the period.
San Antonio had a much better second period, despite being outshot 13-9. The Stars tied the game at 4:54 when Joel Kiviranta redirected a Gavin Bayreuther blast from the point past Husso, knotting the game up 2-2 to force overtime.
“For the first 40 minutes, I thought we were doing a lot of standing around and watching,” Bannister said.
Neither team found the back of the net in the overtime period, despite solid scoring chances from Walker and Austin Poganski. In the shootout, Jason Robertson netted the game-winner for the Stars as goaltender Jake Oettinger stopped all three San Antonio shots.
The Rampage finished 1-for-4 on the power play, while Texas went 1-for-3. The Stars outshot San Antonio 40-23 for the game as Husso stopped 37 of 39 shots in the loss.
“Tomorrow is going to be difficult,” Bannister added. “Texas isn’t an easy place to play and they’re playing well right now. We’ll have to be at our best.”
UP NEXT:
The Rampage are now 11-13-9 (31 points) on the season and will return to the ice tomorrow night when they travel to the Austin suburbs for a rematch with the Stars at 7:30 p.m. from the H-E-B Center.
