Gameday Preview: Stars at San Antonio Rampage

Texas Stars 33-16-3-5, 74 pts #1 Western Conference

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San Antonio Rampage 24-23-3-5, 56 pts #9 Western Conference

March 1st at 7:00 PM

AT&T Center, San Antonio, TX

Aside from tonight, every Texas Stars fan needs to be a San Antonio Rampage fan the rest of the way.

The playoffs are coming and the Texas Stars are looking to secure as good a playoff spot as they can. Home ice advantage would be nice. What would be even better would be a 2-2-1 format for that first round playoff series. If Texas can hold onto first place and the Rampage can sneak into the eighth spot, the Stars will play their five game first round series against San Antonio in the more traditional 2-2-1 format. Things worked out OK last year for Texas when they opened against Milwaukee with a 2-3 series, opening in Wisconsin. Playing against San Antonio is the only chance that Texas has for a traditional here, there and back type playoff series. It couldn't hurt if Texas got to play the Rampage in the second round as well. OKC is the second-closest team to Texas and even that was a 2-3-2 last season. So, aside from the four remaining games between these two, root for those Alamo City boys.

Jack Campbell practiced all week in Dallas as they returned from the Olympic break. Some speculated that meant he was ready to play for the Stars soon. If so, he could backup tonight, if not start. (Campbell is ready, as Robinson was assigned earlier today.)

The Rampage will be playing their first game at home in several weeks following their traditional February 'Rodeo Roadtrip'. On the trip, they went 7-2-0-1, which put them back in the playoff hunt after they were teetering on the edge of irrelevance. Goalies Jacob Markstrom and Michael Houser put in six performances allowing zero or one goal on the trip. Their last game featured a natural hat trick from Joey Crabb. Vincent Trocheck assisted on all three.

Look for a very full crowd tonight in the AT&T Center. The city hasn't seen hockey since January, so these are the tickets all those folks who were excited by the Olympics have been buying.

Stars injury/call up report:
Petersen, Vause (injury)
Campbell (questionable)

Website: sarampage.com
Blog (unofficial): Rampage with Tony U.
Blog (unofficial): Runnin' With The Herd
Twitter: @SARampage
Twitter: @DanWeissPBP (play-by-play for SA)