SAN ANTONIO – The Los Chimuelos de San Antonio rallied for a 3-2 victory over the Ontario Reign (10-12-5) in front of 6,048 fans at the AT&T Center on Friday night.
The win is the fifth straight at home for San Antonio, who have won nine of their last ten at the AT&T Center.
“I thought we played some pretty good hockey,” Rampage coach Drew Bannister said. “I know we were down 2-0 [after the first period] but we held our own. The guys stuck with it and didn’t change anything. We got rewarded for our work.”
The Reign had the perfect start to the game, going up two goals. Mikey Eyssimont put the visitors up a goal as he beat San Antonio goaltender Evan Fitzpatrick at 10:12 and Kyle Bauman‘s tally at 19:12 put Ontario up 2-0 going into the second period.
San Antonio answered back in the middle stanza as they scored two goals of their own to knot things up. Austin Poganksi lit the lamp just three minutes into the period, beating Ontario goaltender Jack Campbell on a breakaway attempt. Four minutes later, Connor Bleackley banged home a rebound off a Niko Mikkola shot to tie the game 2-2 going into the final period.
The game would remain tied at two goals apiece until midway through the third period. That’s when Sammy Blais put home a wrist shot past Campbell at 10:33 to give San Antonio the win.
Jordan Kyrou got the assist on Bleackley’s goal, extending his point streak to nine games. Fitzpatrick won his first AHL start, stopping 19 of 21 shots in the victory. His performance would earn him Third Star of the Game honors.
“He made some important saves,” Bannister said. “The guys played well in front of him and I thought that was important after our performance last night.”
UP NEXT:
The Rampage are now 14-17-1 (29 points) and will return to the ice on Sunday afternoon when they welcome the Texas Stars (36 points) at 5 pm Central Time at the AT&T Center.
