Gameday Preview: Texas Stars v. San Antonio Rampage

Texas Stars 13-10-1-1, 28 pts, 0.560 #5 Pacific Division

v.

San Antonio Rampage 12-13-2-0, 26 pts, 0.481 #8 Pacific Division

December 20th at 7:30 PM

H-E-B Center at Cedar Park, Cedar Park, TX

The Texas Stars will look to bounce back from an embarrassing outing on Satuday, which saw them defeated by eight goals at home.

San Antonio is last place in the division but only by a game. It could provide a chance for the Stars to get back to winning ways. Over the past few weeks, the Rampage have been getting more players back to health. However, they seem to be stuck at the level of .500 hockey, consistently one or two games below even since early November.

Texas will be fielding a ragged squad. Denis Gurianov headed to Canada for the World Juniors on Sunday. Mattias Backman practiced last weekend but did not play. Ethan Werek and Cole Ully also appear to still be out with injury. Add to this the fact that Dustin Stevenson is suspended for a game after receiving an instigator penalty in the final five minutes of regulation on Saturday.

As a result, Texas signed D Joe Faust to a PTO on Monday. If all the above holds, Texas will have just one healthy scratch for tonight's game.

As an organization, Dallas still continues to struggle with goaltending and now AHL level has claimed another victim. Landon Bow, who had been flying high in his first two games, is now at a 3.67 GAA and .903 SV%. It's anyone's guess what Texas decides to do for starting tenders this week. Neither Lagace nor Bow distinguished himself last weekend. Maybe Desrosiers gets a shot?

Stars injury/call up report:
Gurianov (World Juniors)
Backman (mid-body injury)
Werek, Ully (injury)
Stevenson (suspended for instigator in final five minutes)

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