Week in Review

A lot has happened since I last wrote, including yet another 3rd period meltdown Saturday night and a much needed shootout victory on Sunday.

Oct 16th @ Texas
 The Rampage dominated the contest for the first 40 minutes taking a 3-1 lead into the 3rd period and completely taking the Cedar Park crowd out of the game. The shots were fairly even, but the Rampage had the better scoring chances and dictated the game through two periods. Then, the 3rd period happened. The ice tilted back in the Stars favor and all hell broke loose. The 3rd period went roughly like this: Rampage penalty, Stars score, another Rampage penalty, Stars score again. Then it at the 12 minute mark, the Rampage's Alex Picard scored his second Power Play goal of the game, giving the Rampage a huge 4-3 lead with just over 7 minutes left. All was good again. Until 1:01 later when the Stars tied it on a huge defensive gaffe, which is becoming a recurring theme with this team. The two teams went back and forth for the final 5 minutes sending the game to OT. I left the computer to put the kids to bed, and when I came back 5 minutes later, Dan Weiss was doing the post game recap. Bah. Bottom line, you take a 3-1 lead into the 3rd, you HAVE to play smart and defensive hockey. The Rampage did neither. The first penalty was a goaltender interference, the second was a Too Many Men penalty. Bah again. Bad mistakes and the team lost a point because of it. A Point they had right in their hands.

Oct 17th vs Lake Erie
 The team returned home for a matinee with the Lake Erie Monsters. With the Cowboys playing a huge game at the same time, the place was pretty empty but they still came loud and proud. Nice job to the fans that did come out. The first period was the worst period the team played this season. They were outshot 10-4 and outplayed even worse. Their was no communication, no offensive flow, and average defense. If not for Climie, they easily could have been down 3-0. The second period saw the team improve offensively, but still fail to register any really good scoring chances and the finished the 3nd trailing 1-0. There were several times where two players were in the same spot, players passed to areas where no one was, and wide open passes were missed...badly. At one point, the camera was on Coach Edwards and the look on his face said it all. The 3rd period was much much better and Alex Picard came up big again with a typical Picard goal. He parked his big body in front of the net and one timed a perfect pass from Tikhonov who picked up the loose puck behind the net. Matt Beaudoin would add a power play goal about 2 and a half minutes later giving the Rampage a lead. Then...it happened...again. This time, Jonas Ahnelov made a very tentative, and quite frankly, horrible decision to play the man at the blue line instead of the puck, passing up a chance to keep it in the offensive zone. He missed his man, which lead to a rush the other way, and after 3 or 4 passes, the Monsters would tie it up. The game would eventually go to a shootout and with goals by Mikkel Boedker and Tim Stapleton and a very solid job by Matt Climie, the Rampage would win the shootout 2-1, picking up the extra point.

Thoughts from the weekend

-The boys NEED to tighten up in the 3rd period. Thus far, they have been nothing short of terrible in the 3rd and are having all kinds of trouble holding leads. Even in the season opening 6-3 win, they gave up 3 goals in 1:56 in the 3rd period. Luckily, they had a 5-0 lead at the time. The Rampage are being outscored 12-7 in the 3rd so far and have given up 12 of 19 goals allowed in the 3rd period.

-Climie has been much better than his stats would indicate. He is getting no help from his defense.

-Beaudoin, while surprising, is earning his early success. He is out there busting his butt every single shift, and it is paying off for him.

-Picard is Picard. Scoring the ugly goals and getting in there and mixing it up. Good to have him back.

News and Notes

-Andrew Ebbett has been recalled to Phoenix to replace the injured Martin Hanzal who will be out for 1-2 weeks.

-Taking Ebbett's place on the roster is Colin Long, who was recalled from Las Vegas yesterday. Bracken Kearns will move up to take Ebbett's place between MacLean and Boedker and Long will take Kearns' spot between Hollweg and Beaudoin. Long had a goal and an assist in Las Vegas' opening night victory over Bakersfield.

-Forwards Matt Watkins, David Brine, and Peter MacArthur still aren't skating at practice. Josh Lunden was also MIA yesterday, but I haven't seen any news on him.

-Forward Ned Lukacevic, who was recalled prior to this past weekend and saw action in Sundays game, and Defenseman Mathieu Brodeur were re-assigned to Las Vegas yesterday.

-The Rampage are now at 7 defensemen, and by all indications, Jeff May will be the 7th guy and rotate in occasionally.


Coming up a little later, your gameday preview.

Special thanks to www.theahl.com for boxscores and statistics.