SAN ANTONIO – The San Antonio Rampage fell to the Texas Stars 3-2 in overtime in front of 2,675 in the AT&T Center. Down 2-1 with a minute remaining, the Silver and Black potted their first power-play goal of the preseason to tie the game with 58 seconds to go, forcing the contest into overtime. Texas’ Branden Troock landed the game-winning goal in the third minute of extra time to hand the Rampage their first preseason loss of the 2016 campaign.
The first twenty minutes of regulation went scoreless as the Rampage limited the Stars to four shots in the period. San Antonio finished the frame with nine shots before returning to the locker room. Goaltender Jeremy Smith collected a couple acrobatic saves late in the first to keep Texas off the scoreboard.
The Stars opened the scoring during the seventh minute of the second period when Colin Jacobs tipped a pass from defenseman Zach Bell. San Antonio’s Smith was screened on the play that initially began with Will Merchant’s pass to Bell who fed the puck inside to Jacobs. Despite Texas recording their first goal of the night, the Rampage rebounded just a minute later off a Rocco Grimaldi breakaway goal. The play began when Grimaldi forced a Texas turnover in the neutral zone, providing him with a one-on-one with netminder Phillippe Desrosiers. Grimaldi finished the play when he slipped the puck through Desrosiers’ five-hole to tie the game at one.
Texas made a statement early in the third period scoring their second goal of the game just 24 seconds in. Down 2-1 early in the third frame, the Rampage continued to fire pucks at Texas’ Landon Bow until the Silver and Black netted the game-tying goal with 58 seconds remaining in regulation. Head coach Eric Veilleux pulled goalie Kent Simpson with a minute remaining in favor of a six-on-four situation, when A.J. Greer finished a loose puck in front of the net to tie the game.
Halfway into the three-on-three overtime period, the San Antonio Rampage surrendered the game-winning goal to the Stars on an open-look blast from Troock.
San Antonio was 1-4 on the power play while holding the Stars scoreless on three chances with the man advantage. San Antonio’s Smith finished the night with 12 saves (.923) in 32 minutes, while Simpson finished with 11 saves (.846) in 30 minutes.
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