Highlights:
AT&T Center – Every goaltender dreams of having a great professional debut. On Sunday, Spencer Martin’s dream became reality as he led the San Antonio Rampage to a victory over their in-state rivals.
Martin finished with 46 saves in his professional debut as he led the Rampage to a 3-1 win over the Texas Stars in front of 3,619 fans inside the AT&T Center.
The scoring would get started before the fans had a chance to settle into their seats. Maxim Noreau beat Texas netminder John Muse just 1:22 into the game with a power play tally to give the Rampage the early lead. Chris Bigras added a goal four minutes later to put San Antonio up 2-0 going into the middle frame.
Texas responded with Gemel Smith’s fifth goal of the season on the power play. Smith’s goal would stand as the lone goal of the second period and the Rampage took the 2-1 lead into the final period of play.
All but one home game had gone to overtime, but the Rampage were determined to not make that happen this time. Michael Schumacher’s insurance goal at 16:57 sealed the 3-1 win for the Silver and Black, despite Texas pulling Muse in a final effort.
“Take the two points and start preparing for the next one,” Rampage Head Coach Dean Chynoweth said. “I like the way we started the game, I thought the back half of the first period we gave them the momentum back and they held onto it for the second period and much of the third.”
Martin stopped 46 of 47 Texas shots in his first career professional start, earning the First Star of the Game.
“He was good,” Chynoweth said of Martin’s performance. “He looked big. He found pucks, he covered pucks through traffic. There were a lot of good things there.”
San Antonio finished 1-for-3 on the power play, while Texas was 1-for-6 with the man advantage. Muse finished with 24 saves on 27 Rampage shots. The Stars outshot San Antonio 47-27 for the game and 34-16 through the final two periods.
The Rampage are now 8-1-4-0 (20 points) on the season and will return to the ice on Tuesday morning for a rematch with the Texas Stars at 10:30 a.m. for their annual Cool School Day game.
