From the Rampage Desk: Week 16 - Reign

The beloved Rampage finish off January with a pair of games against the Pacific leading Ontario Reign. If the Avs have any decent interdepartmental communication structure at all they should know what the Reign are going to do before they do. Amateur scouting has been observing Ontario very closely for the last few weeks, the speculation is for trade purposes.

Roster Report

- Spencer Martin was returned to the Rampage after Wednesday’s game, perhaps for the last time. Semyon Varlamov had season-ending surgery Thursday so unless the Avs acquire a goalie or decide to use Jeremy Smith occasionally, Marty will be back there for the duration after the ASG.

- Jim O’Brien was also returned to SA after Wednesday’s game. He dressed for warmups but didn’t play, which is a really shitty move by the Avs if you ask me. Might be his only trip to Denver, the least they could do is let him play in a meaningless game.

- Alex Belzile was sent down to the Eagles for the 2nd time in 3 days. Kent Simpson joins him for the weekend but he’ll be back in San Antonio when Marty gets called up on Monday.

All-Star Game

AJ Greer will head to Allentown PA Sunday morning for AHL ASG festivities. The Skills Competition is Sunday night and the game is on Monday. Both will be broadcast on Altitude, FSSW and other regionals around the country. Spencer Martin was slated to join him but his talent is needed elsewhere, Jack Campbell will take his spot.

Fast Facts: Rockford

SA 6 - RFD 2

Shots: 28-30 (48.3%) Bigras led with 5, Greer/Whit had 4
Special Teams: PP 2/6, PK 4/5
Jeremy Smith stopped 28/30 (.933)
Goals: Bourkew (6), Lindholm (2), Grimaldi (15,16), Petryk (3), Clark (1)

Four goals in one period, wow, and in the 3rd to boot. After a gruesome start to the 10-game homestand the Rampage now have their first 3-game home win streak of the season. Even better, this was the 499th victory in franchise history.

Preview: Ontario

The Rampage and Reign have split a pair of games so far with the road team winning both but even in the Rampage loss they were much closer than Ontario came in theirs. Well, at least we proved they can be beaten. If San Antonio does manage to win one of these it will be the 500th in the team’s history so expect some well-deserved hoopla.

This is a good set to peruse the opponent for future Avs prospects. The Reign have been scouted heavily by the Avs staff all month, names I’ve seen that keep popping up are Paul LaDue, Zach Leslie, Michael Amadio, Justin Auger & Johnny Brodzinski. Adrian Kempe and Michael Mersch would be nice too but might not be on the table unless the deal is bigger than generally thought.

Lines from Wednesday

Whitney - Bourke - Nunn
Greer - Compher - Sislo
Bourque - Girard - Grimaldi
Henley - Nantel - Petryk

Bigras - Clark
Boikov - Lindholm
Siemens - Young

Smith
Simpson

Scratched: Belzile, Geertsen

O’Brien will be back at center and Marty in net for both games I’m sure. No idea who sits out of the forwards but I already hate it. Hope to see Geertsen for a game but I can see them waiting for a week of practice to shuffle the pairs.

Schedule

Friday vs Ontario 8:30pmET
Saturday vs Ontario 8pmET

All games on Ticket760

Links

Nate, JP and Topher got together for RWtH Live last night, give it a listen.

Dan Weiss talked to AJ Greer about the All-Star Game here

Some post-game vids from Wednesday:
Coach Veilleux
Bourkie
Mat Clark
Rocco

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Avs are off for the All-Star Break so this is the only game in town. Stop by and say hi.