| Texas Stars 1-2-0-0, 2 pts #12 Western Conference | v. | San Antonio Rampage 2-1-0-0, 4 pts #9 Western Conference |
October 20th at 7:30 PM
Cedar Park Center, Cedar Park, TX
The Stars take the ice this evening in Cedar Park coming off a game that was memorable for all the wrong reasons. In Oklahoma City, Texas got railroaded with a 10 goal burst from the Barons. One of the only good things you can say is at least no one got hurt in such a meaningless second and third period. With the loss, Texas has set its record at below .500 for only the second time in franchise history. The only other occurrence was after Texas's inaugural loss in San Antonio in 2009.
While Texas faced San Antonio twice in the preseason, this team is not the same as that one. Brian Foster has played in all three games for the San Antonio Rampage, winning two in a shootout and losing the other in regulation. He is 2-1 overall with a .900SV% and 2.48 GAA. Manny Legace did start the Rampage's first game, but was taken out after getting injured in the first. He has since been released and signed by Springfield. Tyler Plante has backed up Foster since then.
Bracken Kearns stayed with the team despite the move and is leading the scoring early with 3 goals. Three players are tied at one. Former Star Greg Rallo has yet to score on the young season but has played in all three games and collected a plus-3 rating with 11 shots on goal. He told Dan Weiss that he's expecting a mix of cheers and boos when he returns to the CPC this season.
San Antonio will come to town rested, as they have not played since an 11-round shootout win against Houston on Saturday.
On the Texas side of the ledger, I would expect that Coach Pyle worked hard this week on 5-on-5 play, as he said he would do last week. After a loss like the Stars suffered, there isn't a lot to do but re-rack and try again. Despite a lack of history on this team, looking up and down the roster would suggest that this team is not typified by that sort of play.
It's not time to panic yet. The stat about better than .500 play that this franchise has enjoyed is telling of what its fans will expect. Remember that even championship teams go through rough patches. Some happen early and some happen late. This may just be one of those patches.
Stars injury/call up report:
None.
Website: sarampage.com
Blog (unofficial): Rampage with Tony U.
Blog (unofficial): Runnin' With The Herd
Twitter: @SARampage
Twitter: @SARampage_Voice (play-by-play for SA)
@SARAmpage_Voice just tweeted that Kearns got recalled today.
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