San Antonio Rampage head coach Tom Rowe said his team “deserved what they got” after last Friday’s 3-0 shutout loss to the Utica Comets. A week later, the silver and black would still come up short against Utica despite a better effort from Rowe’s club.
Logan Shaw and Steven Kampfer both tallied their first goal of the season, but it was not enough as the Rampage suffered a 5-2 loss to the Comets (4-1-1-0, 9 points) in front of a sold out crowd of 3,815 fans inside Utica Memorial Auditorium on Friday night. The loss was the second of the season, both have been to Utica.
The home team got on the scoreboard when Brandon DeFazio scored a short-handed goal on a two-on-one break to put the Comets up 1-0 just four minutes into the game.
Later in the period, Ronalds Kenins tipped in a shot from Peter Andersson past San Antonio netminder Dan Ellis to give Utica the 2-0 advantage going into the second period.
Both teams had good scoring chances throughout the middle period, but it was the Comets that lit the lamp late. Kenins sent a shot towards the San Antonio net that bounced off Ellis and in to give the Comets a 3-0 advantage.
The Rampage finally got on the scoreboard when Shaw let go a slapshot from the point that went past the glove of Utica goaltender Joacim Eriksson with 40 seconds remaining in the second period to cut the Comets lead to 3-1.
San Antonio got within a goal when Kampfer sent a blast from the point to make it 3-2 in favor of Utica. Ellis left the net for an extra attacker in the final moments, but Nicklas Jensen and Dustin Jeffrey would put home a pair of empty-net goals to seal the 5-2 win for the Comets.
Ellis made 16 saves on 19 Comets shots, while Eriksson stopped 39 of the 41 shots he faced. San Antonio finished the game 1-for-7 on the power play, while Utica was 1-for-4 with the man advantage.
The Rampage are now 3-2-0-0 (6 points) on the season and will return to the ice tomorrow (Saturday) night when they travel to Canada to face the Hamilton Bulldogs at 7 p.m. inside FirstOntario Centre.
