“Rampage Roundup” is a weekly feature at The Sunshine Skate to keep you in touch with your favorite future Panthers.
Summary:
After a busy beginning to January, things slowed down for the Rampage with the final game of their road trip last Wednesday. The team met with the Rochester Americans for the first time this season, resulting in a 3–1 victory. Ryan Martindale scored his first goal in nearly a month and the first of the game halfway through the first period. Blake Parlett followed it up with a goal of his own exactly three minutes later. Rochester fought to stay in the game, with an unassisted goal by Dan Catenacci. In a rather uneventful remainder of the game, Bobby Butler picked up his 15th goal of the season during the second period. Despite being outshot 28–21, San Antonio kept the score at 3–1. In an uncharacteristically tame game, the Rampage incurred only two penalties in all three periods of play while the Amerks stayed out of the box entirely.
Following travel back to Texas and a few game-free days, the Rampage met with the Iowa Wild once again on January 10th. For the third time out of four meetings this season, the game resulted in a San Antonio victory. In true Rampage fashion, each of the goals in the 8–3 win was scored by a different player. The Wild got on board nearly immediately with a goal by Zack Mitchell 48 seconds into the game. The Rampage followed with goals by Josh McFadden and Mark Mancari in the eventful first period, which also saw the Wild score their final two goals of the game; Matt Dumba notched a powerplay goal at 19:02 and an even strength goal by Marc Hagel 41 seconds later.
Things would begin to fall apart for Iowa during the second period with goals by Connor Brickley and Garrett Wilson, the latter a powerplay goal. In fact, the Rampage notched three power play goals in six chances during the night, demonstrating how effective and instrumental the powerplay has become for the home team. Jesse Blacker notched his third goal of the season and second PPG five minutes into the third. Less than four minutes later, Logan Shaw found his 10th goal of the season during even strength. The Rampage saw themselves with another powerplay opportunity with less than four minutes remaining in the game, which Steven Kampfer took advantage of the 5-on-3 to tally his fourth PPG of the season. The eighth and final goal of the game came from Brett Olson with 12 seconds left.
Eight players also had multi-point nights, with all except three (Yogan, Basaraba, and Megan) picking up at least one point. Jesse Blacker, Mark Mancari, Josh McFadden, Steven Kampfer, Brett Olson, Logan Shaw, and Garret Wilson all had a goal and an assist. McFadden and Blake Parlett also managed to pick a couple fights in the third. In his first game with the Rampage following the Drew Shore trade, Corban Knight also picked up an assist.
However, the jubilation wouldn’t last long as the Rampage endured another disappointing loss to the Toronto Marlies the next night in a 0–3 shutout loss. Despite the score, Michael Houser allowed only one goal, by Brandon Kozun halfway through the third period. The final two goals, both scored by Carter Ashton and assisted by Kozun, were empty netters within the last few minutes of the game. Even with rampant penalties from both sides, play remained tight throughout the game, with SOG barely favoring the Marlies at 35-30. It was also only the second shutout suffered by the Rampage this season (the first coming on October 17th against the Utica Comets).
Impact Players:
Steven Kampfer, who has been a consistent defensive presence for the Rampage, notched his first multipoint game of the season versus the Wild, with a goal and an assist. With 8 goals so far, Kampfer leads Rampage defensemen in goals.
Despite spending most of this season with the Cincinnati Cyclones, Josh McFadden broke through since being called up due to Jonathan Racine’s injury. He got his first assist of the season during the Amerks game and followed it up with a goal and an assist against the Wild, his first professional goal since April of 2014.
With Drew Shore’s move to the Calgary Flames organization, Bobby Butler remains the Rampage’s only All-Star and he’s continued to play like it. In addition to his goal in Rochester, Butler had his eighth multipoint game of the season against the Wild and leads the team with 34 points.
Upcoming games:
The Rampage (21–13–3–0), still ranked fifth in the Western Conference, will have a fairly tame schedule the next few days with only two games over the next week. Rochester (15–22–1-0) will be visiting for a rematch on January 17th followed by a visit from the Texas Stars (15–12–9–0) on January 20th. The Stars are only 3 points behind the Chicago Wolves with a game in hand for a playoff spot so they will be looking to pick up as many points as possible.
Natalija can be reached for contact on Twitter.
