AT&T Center – The San Antonio Rampage arrived back in the Alamo city around 6 a.m. after an eight hour bus ride from Oklahoma City on Friday night. A tired team took the ice a little over 13 hours later and while most expected a loss, the Silver and Black used their hot offense (and some luck) to squeak out another win.
Bobby Butler continued his hot scoring as the Rampage defeated the Hamilton Bulldogs (30-25-9-0, 69 points) 4-2 in front of 8,441 fans at the AT&T Center on Saturday night. The win was the teams fourth straight, pulling them even in points with the Oklahoma City Barons for the West division lead.
Connor Brickley got things started for the Silver and Black (or…on this night, green and orange) when he slipped the puck through the legs of Hamilton goaltender Mike Condon four minutes into the game. The Bulldogs tied the game when Nick Sorkin put a backhand shot past San Antonio netminder Michael Houser 8:56 into the period. The Rampage took the lead back with an Andrew Yogan goal with a minute remaining to put San Antonio up 2-1 going into the second period.
Butler extended the Rampage lead when he took a pass from Rocco Grimaldi and flipped it over Condon’s shoulder at the 5:27 mark of the middle frame for a power play tally. Butler’s 25th goal of the season gave San Antonio the 3-1 edge going into the final period of play.
San Antonio continued to score in the third period when Garrett Wilson sent a wrister past Condon at 6:22. Hamilton stopped the bleeding with a power play goal from Gabriel Dumon five minutes later to seal the 4-2 win for the Rampage.
“What we’re doing now is good,” Rampage head coach Tom Rowe said. “We’re playing a harder game than we did the first half of the season and tried to play a simpler game. The way we’re playing and the way we’re trending is the way we want to be trending at the end of the season.”
Houser, who is 7-1-1-1 in his last ten games, made 30-of-32 saves. Condon took the loss and made 20 of 24 saves in the loss.
“I’m feeling more comfortable in net game by game,” Houser said of his past 10 games. “Tom [Rowe] asked me how I was feeling and wanted to know my thoughts, I told him the more I’ve been playing the better I’ve been feeling.”
Hamilton finished 1-for-6 on the power play, while San Antonio was 1-for-3 on the man advantage.
The Rampage are now (38-20-5-1, 82 points) on the season and will return to the ice tomorrow afternoon when they host the Bulldogs for the final time this season at the AT&T Center at 4 p.m.
