The San Antonio Rampage know they have little room for error in a tight Western Conference fight for the Calder Cup Playoffs. Just 24 hours ago, they suffered a 3-2 overtime loss to their conference rival Chicago Wolves. 17 hours later, the Silver and Black returned to stun the home team and leave Illinois with three of four points.
San Antonio scored four unanswered goals as they defeated the Wolves (27-20-5-1, 60 points) 5-2 in front of 6,157 fans inside Allstate Arena on Sunday afternoon.
Unlike last night, the home team got on the scoreboard first. Brent Sopel got Chicago on the scoreboard as he let go a shot from the right side, beat San Antonio goaltender Michael Houser to put the Wolves up 1-0 going into the second period.
Connor Brickley tied the game in the middle frame as he put home a rebound off a Logan Shaw shot past Chicago netminder Jordan Binnington at 7:04. Bobby Butler gave the Rampage a 2-1 lead when he sent a wrist shot past Binnington for a power-play tally at 9:03. Butler scored again on a breakaway chance to put San Antonio up by two goals going into the third period.
Mark Mancari scored against his former team when he put the puck between the pads of Binnington to put the Rampage up 4-1 at 12:36 of the final frame. The fourth unanswered goal meant Matt Climie would take over in net for the Wolves. Chicago stopped the bleeding with a goal from Shane Harper at 16:30, but Logan Shaw answered with an empty-net goal from center ice as the Rampage sealed their 5-2 win.
Houser stopped 21 of the 23 shots he faced for his third career win against the Wolves. Binnington made 21 of 25 saves in 52 minutes of work, Climie stopped the lone shot he faced in just over three minutes of work.
Chicago was 0-for-5 on the power-play, while the Silver and Black were 3-for-6 with the man advantage. San Antonio out-shot the Wolves 27-23 for the game and 12-8 in the middle frame.
The Rampage are now 30-18-5-0 (65 points) and will return to the ice on Friday when they travel to Oklahoma City to face the Western Conference leading Barons at 7 p.m. inside the Cox Convention Center.
*Rampage 3-3-1-0 (7 points) on Rodeo Road Trip
