SAN ANTONIO – Nikita Soshnikov had a two-goal night and Jordan Kyrou had the game-winning goal in the shootout as the San Antonio Rampage dug deep for a 4-3 shootout victory over the Iowa Wild (14-6-4) in front of 6,258 fans at the AT&T Center on Friday night.
The win was the second straight and second in the last three games for San Antonio, who are 3-2 in the month of December and 8-3-1 in their last 12 games.
“The momentum shifts quickly in the first [period] and it allowed us to take over,” Rampage head coach Drew Bannister said. “It helped us with our penalty kill and we were able to get momentum off that. I liked our response after going down 3-2 and our response off that.”
San Antonio opened the scoring with two goals in a span of 29 seconds in the first period. Soshnikov scored on a one-timer from the high slot that put the home side up a goal then at 4:11 Trevor Smith lit the lamp for his fifth of the year, putting the Rampage up two goals going into the second period.
The Rampage held on to their two-goal lead until late in the middle stanza when Matt Read beat San Antonio netminder Ville Husso to cut the Rampage lead to 2-1 after 40 minutes.
Iowa netted back-to-back goals to take a one-goal lead in the third period. Colton Beck redirected a wrist shot Gerald Mayhew to knot the score up 2-2. Justin Kloos gave the Wild a one-goal lead 14:17 but Soshnikov’s second of the night tied the game up 3-3 and forced overtime.
Overtime couldn’t find a winner, so the game would be decided in a shootout. Austin Poganski and Kyrou both had goals in the skills competition and Husso made two of three saves to give San Antonio the win and second point in the game.
“We had a great start and had a bunch of chances,” Kyrou said. “We couldn’t bury them and let them come back.”
After a tough start to the season, the Rampage are now 8-3-1 in their last 12 games and have won six of their last seven home games with four of their next five at the AT&T Center.
“We’re feeling pretty good right now,” Smith said. “We just can’t get too high on it, we’ve got to come out the same way and come out the first five minutes and hold that for the whole game.”
UP NEXT:
The Rampage are now 11-15-1 (23 points) on the season and will return to the ice on Sunday afternoon when they close out a weekend set with the Wild at 3 pm Central Time at the AT&T Center.
