AHL San Antonio Rampage

Rampage move up two spots with 3-2 OT rally

Published on April 8, 2008 under American Hockey League (AHL)
San Antonio Rampage News Release


DES MOINES, Iowa -- The San Antonio Rampage saved their best for last, scoring twice in a 62-second span to take a 3-2 win in overtime against the Iowa Stars Tuesday night at Wells Fargo Arena.

http://stats.theahl.com/stats/game-summary.php?game_id=1004618

Matt Murley kept the Rampage alive by scoring the game-tying goal with 34 seconds left, and Mike Zigomanis finished off the charge, netting the winner in the first 30 seconds of overtime.

Click to listen to Joe Dominey's call of Zigomanis' OT winner:

http://www.sarampage.com/fanzone/center/index.html?c=3&id=252&t=0

The win was their league-leading eighth when trailing after two periods and puts the American Hockey League West Division back into chaos. The Rampage (41-26-3-7, 92 points) are deadlocked with Houston and Milwaukee for third-place, while each is just two points behind Rockford for second, and more importantly, home-ice advantage in the first round of the Calder Cup Playoffs.

With the Rampage trailing 2-1 late, the Rampage pulled Al Montoya in favor of an extra attacker. The tactic worked, as Matt Murley netted the equalizer in the last minute of play off a centering pass from David Spina into a crowd. The pass seemed to be for Joey Tenute, but the official score went to Murley, who tied a career-high for points in a season (58). Spina has 11 points (six goals, five assists) in the last seven games.

In the last 10 seconds of play, Al Montoya came up with a huge save for the Rampage, and Travis Roche cleared the puck from the cage to send the overtime.

On the first shot, Mike Zigomanis smoothly deked left and fired a blazer top-shelf that found nothing but net 29 seconds into sudden death.

The winner gives Zigomanis 22 points in 25 contests with the Rampage this season, and extends his point streak to three games (two goals, one assist). Earlier this season, Zigomanis had a seven-game point streak (four goals, five assists) to tie the longest by a Rampage player in the 2007-08 campaign.

The win snapped a season-long four-game losing streak on the road for the Rampage. Al Montoya stopped 22 shots for his fifth win in six tries. Matt Climie made 33 saves for Iowa.

Ross gave the Rampage the first goal, and the first of his brief three-game career, with 6:51 left in the first period. The 19-year-old Ross, who recently joined the Rampage after finishing his season with the Kamloops Blazers of the Western Hockey League, picked up the puck just below the blue-line in the Iowa zone and fired a shot that scooted five-hole through Matt Climie's legs and crawled over the goal-line.

Iowa quickly evened the score with the first of a pair from center Marty Sertich 34 seconds later.

Sertich brilliantly poked a pass from Marius Holtet through the pipes for his second goal of the period and 2-1 Iowa advantage after 20 minutes, though the Rampage outchanced the Stars 18-8.

Multiple penalties and a game misconduct on Keith Yandle mired the second period for the Rampage. But great work on the penalty kill kept the score unchanged as the teams headed into the last stanza.

Bryan Helmer picked up assists on the last two tallies for his first multiple-point night of the year. He has 498 points total in his career. Montoya's 22 saves give him 2,994 for his career. It was the eighth time in 12 starts with the Rampage that Montoya has allowed two goals or less. Steven Goertzen played in his 300th professional game. The Rampage fared well against Iowa this season, taking six of the eight meetings and losing just once in regulation (6-1-1-0). Three of the Rampage's six overtime wins this season came at the hands of the Stars.

The Rampage play their final road game of the season at 7 p.m. Friday in Peoria, where they have yet to lose during regulation this season (2-0-0-1). They return home the next night in the first of a two-game set with the Quad City Flames to wrap up the regular season.

Check out the San Antonio Rampage Statistics

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American Hockey League Stories from April 8, 2008


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