Independent Student Newspaper for the University of Texas at San Antonio

The Paisano

Independent Student Newspaper for the University of Texas at San Antonio

The Paisano

Independent Student Newspaper for the University of Texas at San Antonio

The Paisano

Rampage continue points streak

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In three games over three days this weekend, the Rampage continued to pick up points as they fell in overtime to the Chicago Wolves twice at home — both by a score of 4 to 3 — and beat the Texas Stars on their own ice Saturday night.

The Rampage have played 10 games this season and have yet to lose a game in regulation. This places them in a three-way tie for the Pacific Division lead with a point percentage of .800.

San Antonio held a lead for a considerable portion of Friday’s game. Goals by defenseman Maxim Noreau and winger Borna Rendulic gave the team a 2-0 lead, which they surrendered during a six-minute span in the second period. Colin Smith sent the game into the final intermission with San Antonio leading 3-2.

They held on to that lead through most of the third period. But with 55 seconds left in regulation, chaos in front of the Rampage net allowed Jeremy Welsh to get a puck past Rampage netminder Calvin Pickard.

The chaotic 3-on-3 overtime ended after three and a half minutes when the Wolves’ Danny Kristo put a shot from the right circle clean past Pickard.

“As the game wore on, our youth showed,” Head Coach Dean Chynoweth explained. “Guys started to clam up a little bit…you gotta play in those situations, and you gotta learn from it as well.”

The Rampage added another body to their talented but crowded blue line on Saturday. Twenty-year-old Nikita Zadorov — a highly touted first-round draft pick from Moscow — was assigned to San Antonio from Colorado. Zadorov was chosen by the Buffalo Sabres in 2013 and traded to the Avalanche in a blockbuster deal this summer.

Zadorov was the third youngest defenseman in the NHL at the time he was sent down, so there are questions about his ability to handle tough minutes against top competition.

In Cedar Park on Saturday, rookie winger Mikko Rantanen touched every Rampage goal in their 4-3 win. He scored two goals four minutes apart in the second period and then assisted on goals by Joey Hishon and Trevor Cheek to end the night with four points.

Pickard — the AHL’s goalie of the month in October — gave the Rampage a chance to win by stopping 45-of-48 shots in Saturday’s game.

Sunday’s game played out remarkably similar to the contest on Friday. Goals by Troy Bourke and Colin Smith gave the Rampage a two-goal lead over the Wolves. The Wolves then responded with two goals of their own to reset the score halfway through the final frame.

New addition Zadorov scored with two minutes left in his AHL debut to give San Antonio a 3-2 lead.

Chicago’s Ty Rattie then put one past backup Rampage goalie Roman Will to tie the game with just over a minute left. The Wolves went on to win the game less than a minute into overtime as Danny Kristo scored his second overtime goal of the weekend.

Although the Rampage continued their point streak, they acknowledged the need to tighten up parts of their game to avoid giving up late leads.

“There’s still kind of a learning curve right now, still being undefeated (in regulation) and losing like that,” said Noreau. “Down the stretch, hopefully we can put those games away.”

“(We’ll) take the point and move on, but we definitely have to learn from it,” Chynoweth said about Friday’s game. “We can’t be happy with the way it ended.”

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