The San Antonio Rampage would battle down to the wire and show their grit in a tough win on Friday, pushing themselves to the limit in the process.
Ryan Martindale tied the game with 17.8 seconds left in regulation, and Alex Petrovic sealed a 3-2 shootout victory for the Rampage (18-6-2-0) over the Charlotte Checkers (10-15-2-1) in front of 6,226 fans inside Time Warner Cable Arena.
After a scoreless first period, the Silver ans Black got on the scoreboard in the second. Blake Parlett deflected a pass from Mark Mancari past Charlotte goaltender Drew MacIntyre at 8:24 of the middle frame to put the Rampage up 1-0 going into the third period.
The Checkers tied the game midway through the final period when Trevor Carrick put the puck past the shoulder of San Antonio netminder Dan Ellis. Chad LaRose beat Ellis for a power play tally just over seven minutes later to give Charlotte the 2-1 advantage late in the period.
Ellis would be pulled for an extra attacker and the move would pay off as Martindale put the puck past MacIntyre to knot the game up and force overtime. San Antonio would outshoot Charlotte 7-4 in the extra period, but neither team would light the lamp as the game went to the shootout.
In the skills competition, Petrovic would score in the eighth round and Ellis stopped all eight Checkers shooters to seal the 3-2 win for the Silver and Black.
San Antonio outshot Charlotte 38-33 for the game. Ellis made 31 of 33 saves on the night and MacIntyre made 36 saves on 38 San Antonio shots. The Checkers finished the game 1-for-4 on the power play, while San Antonio was 0-for-3 with the man advantage.
The Rampage will return to the ice on Sunday afternoon where they will close out the weekend series with the Checkers at 1 p.m. inside Time Warner Cable Arena.
