OKLAHOMA CITY – The San Antonio Rampage (31-18-5-0) defeated the Oklahoma City Barons (33-15-3-3) 4-2 in front of 2,560 at Cox Convention Center Friday night in the first of two games this weekend. The Rampage are now 4-3-1 on this year’s Rodeo Road Trip, and Bobby Butler and Mark Mancari lead the team with seven points in eight games on the trip.
Mancari now has goals in consecutive games, and Shane O’Brien had a multi-point effort for the Silver and Black in Friday’s win.
Just 1:29 into the game, Mancari’s wrister over the glove of Laurent Brossoit gave the Rampage an early 1-0 lead. Brad Hunt fired a shot from the right side of Michael Houser to even the score at one, which would hold through the end of the first period.
John McFarland gave San Antonio the go-ahead goal, burying a rebound during a 4-on-4, and Rocco Grimaldi and O’Brien picked up helpers, to make it a 2-1 game at 5:31 of the second stanza.
Ryan Martindale sent a pass to O’Brien, who scored his ninth goal of the season to give the Rampage a two-goal lead just one minute into the third period. Bogdan Yakimov cut the Barons deficit by one at 5:16 with a shot into a near empty net with Houser unable to recover from a previous Oklahoma City attempt. Connor Brickley sent the puck soaring down the full length of the ice with less than a minute to play, securing a 4-2 win for the Rampage with the empty-net tally.
Houser, who made consecutive starts for just the second time this season, made all but two saves on 23 shots. Brossoit, in his eighth straight start for the Barons, made 23 saves on 26 shots.
KEY STAT
John McFarland notched his fifth goal of the season and his first of the Rodeo Road Trip.
The Rampage are now 23-1-2-0 when leading after the second period, despite allowing a power-play goal against in the final frame after killing 17 straight penalties coming into tonight’s game.