From the Rampage Desk: Iowa
The beloved Rampage split last weekend with San Jose/San Diego and now sit in 2nd place in the Pacific. Today and tomorrow they are in Iowa to face the perennial doormat Wilds.
News
– Rocco Grimaldi was called up to the Avs after Friday’s game and played Saturday, nabbing a goal and assist. Probably going to be up there for another week or two.
– Andrew Agozzino was also called up after Friday’s game but was sent back before the puck dropped Saturday.
– Brady Shaw was called up to the Rampage Saturday and scored a nice goal in garbage time off a nice feed from Dominic Toninato.
– Ville Husso was called up to the Blues while Carter Hutton awaits fatherhood. No word on how that’s going. Joe Cannata is the backup for the time being.
– Rampage contracted forward Thomas Frazee is your Sher-Wood ECHL Player of the Week for the Atalanta Gladiators. He had a goal and 5 assists in 3 games vs J’ville and Orlando.
Preview: Iowa
The Wild are in their familiar spot in the Central Division basement with a 2-5-2 record and lots of goals against. The Rampage usually struggle against them anyway so this is a test.
Lines/Pairs from Saturday
Ranford – Thompson – Petryk
Colborne – Belzile – Blais
Vogelhuber – Girard – Kostin
Nantel – Toninato – Shaw
Butler – Schmaltz
Geertsen – Warsofsky
Siemens – Graham
Martin
Cannata
Scratch: Aggz (transit), Meloche (sick), Musil (sick)
Right now the Rampage have the 16th PP in the league at 17.1% and the best PK at 90.9%
Goals for they are 11th at 3.38/gm and goals against 3rd at 2.28/gm
Shots are where the warning signs are, shots for they are 26th at 27 per game and shots against they are 11th at 28.63. Shots for have been plummeting lately for the most part and that’s not good.
You’ve got some real dead weight in the lineup that don’t drive play and that is the beginning of the end. Trent Vogelhuber has 2 SOG in 7 games, no excuse for that and no reason he should be in the lineup. Brendan Ranford has 2 assists and 9 SOG in 8 games playing on the PP and top line minutes. Can’t justify that at all. Joe Colborne has 6 SOG in 8 games, if he wasn’t putting up points (2G/2A) he would be a total black hole but as it stands he adds very little 5v5. One goal was on the PP and the other was an ENG. We’re a tenth of the way through the season, getting these guys going isn’t happening. This is who they are. It’s nice to see the team have some wins but it’s pretty much driven by some unsustainable numbers. This is also exactly what happened 2 years ago and no one wants that again.
Schedule
Thursday at Iowa 8pm ET
Friday at Iowa 8pm ET
Links
– Ticket760 has your Rampage radio calls
– Our good friends at Running With the Herd have a new episode ready for your perusal
Next up
San Antonio is in the midwest for a while, playing GRG, Rockford and Chicago after leaving Iowa. First up – Grand Rapids on Wednesday morning.
