Highlights:
AT&T Center – Rocco Grimaldi last saw the AT&T Center ice as a member of the Florida Panthers. Now, he is back and looking to help lead the San Antonio Rampage back into the playoffs as they open a new campaign.
Grimaldi lit the lamp, but the Rampage fell 3-2 in overtime to the Texas Stars in front of 2,347 fans at the AT&T Center on Thursday night in their preseason opener.
“This building is pretty special to me,” Grimaldi said. The fans are great, I love playing here. It’s nice to be back.”
After a scoreless first period, Texas opened the scoring in the second. Colin Jacobs lit the lamp for the visitors in seven minutes into the middle frame off a nice screen play. San Antonio responded moments later with Grimaldi’s breakaway tally, beating Texas netminder Phillippe Desrosiers five-hole to make it one goal apiece.
Texas scored seconds into the third period, giving the visitors the lead. San Antonio kept the pressure on until the final moments when A.J. Greer netted the equalizer, sending the game into overtime.
In the extra frame, Branden Troock scored halfway through the period to seal the win for Texas.
“We definitely saw some good things today,” Rampage coach Eric Veilleux said. With the new system and everything, its quite a change for those players, I thought they reacted well to it. Our transition game is something we need to be better at.”
San Antonio finished the game 1-for-4 (25 percent) on the power play.
Up next: The Rampage are 0-0-1-0 in preseason play and will close out the preseason on Saturday afternoon at the H-E-B Center in Austin against the Stars. The team will open the 2016-17 regular season on October 15 against the Milwaukee Admirals.
