Rampage Game Thread: Texas

The beloved Rampage finish their season-high 10 game homestand tonight and begin the annual Rodeo Road Trip tomorrow, both against the Texas Stars. After this weekend the next home game will be March 3rd.

Roster Report

- Spencer Martin was recalled by the Avs on Monday as expected. I’m all for prospects getting NHL experience in small doses but putting Marty in a situation where he’s over his head on the worst team in recent history is counterproductive. Even tho’ I doubt the results would be any better with Jeremy Smith in the Avs net I’d like to see them swap back and forth a few times for the next couple months rather than see Martin get shellacked on a regular basis.

- Kent Simpson was called up yesterday after racking up a few wins with the Eagles over the past week.

- AJ Greer is back from Allentown after his All-Star experience. He had a goal and assist on a Pacific team that lost all 3 games and was outscored 17-7. Could have used Marty instead of Jack Campbell I guess.

- Rocco Grimaldi was named AHL Player of the Week for his 4-goals & assist last week. Two of the goals were game-winners and he now leads the AHL with 5. He leads the Rampage with 18 goals and 35 points in 44 games.

- The Avs claimed Mark Barberio off waivers yesterday and put Eric Gelinas on waivers. No luck, he’s still with the Avs. At this point Gelinas is only clogging up space for prospects in the NHL and would do more harm than good in San Antonio so I don’t know what they can do to fix things. Maybe a mystery injury.

Preview: Texas

The Stars and Avs are in similar spots at the bottom of the Pacific Division. Both have 20 wins and a solidly negative goal differential. Dallas made a move this week trading Brandon Ranford and Brendan Troock to Arizona for journeyman goalie Justin Peters and some defenseman I’ve never heard of. Considering the success the Rampage have enjoyed vs Peters this year I hope he plays both games.

Lineup from last weekend

Whitney - O’Brien - Petryk
Greer - Compher - Sislo
Bourque - Girard - Grimaldi
Henley - Bourke - Nantel

Bigras - Clark
Boikov - Lindholm
Siemens - Geertsen

Martin
Smith

Scratched: Nunn, Young

Dan Weiss reports that Mat Clark is banged up and might not play tonight, Gus Young is on standby. I don’t expect any other changes in the lineup. Coach Veilleux seems to have 4 lines with chemistry and a solid if unspectacular defensive corps. They’ll need the scratches to play on the road coming up and both Nunn and Young have played their roles well.

Schedule

Friday vs Texas 8:30pm ET
Saturday at Texas 8pm ET

All games on Ticket760

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Neither game conflicts with the Avalanche disaster so stop by and support your prospects!