(sarampage.com) — The San Antonio Rampage held off a late charge from the Chicago Wolves to post a 4-3 victory in Game 2 of their Western Conference Quarterfinal series on Saturday night at the AT&T Center.
With the win, San Antonio went ahead 2-0 in the best-of-five set.
The Rampage scored the game’s first goal, a power-play tally, at the 4:18 mark of the first. Bill Thomas handed San Antonio a 1-0 advantage after deflecting a Greg Rallo shot past Wolves backstop Matt Climie for his first goal of the playoffs.
James Wright extended the San Antonio lead to 2-0 13:51 into the first when he crept out from behind the Chicago net and stuffed the puck home behind Climie for a power-play score. The goal marked Wright’s fifth point in the first two games of the series.
Chicago cut their deficit to 2-1 with a tally from Kevin Doell 23 seconds later. He collected a loose puck at the side of the San Antonio net and shot a backhander that found its way through the legs of Rampage goalie Jacob Markstrom for his first goal of the playoffs.
Jon Matsumoto added his third goal of the series at 9:10 of the second period to make the count 3-1 in favor of the Rampage. With San Antonio on a five-on-three power play, he roofed a shot over Climie’s left shoulder to give the Rampage a two-goal lead.
San Antonio went up 4-1 nearly five minutes later when Bracken Kearns beat Climie to the far side of the net on a wrister from the half boards to notch his first career AHL playoff goal. Climie was replaced by netminder Eddie Lack following the play.
Darren Haydar cut the Rampage lead to 4-2 with a power-play marker 8:07 into the third. While at the bottom of the left circle, he fired a shot through Markstrom’s leg pads for the goal.
Just 51 seconds later Doell brought Chicago to within one, at 4-3, with another power-play goal. He skated to the front of the San Antonio net and beat Markstrom far side to pick up his second goal of the contest. Markstrom stopped 36 of the 39 Wolves shots he faced while Climie turned aside 20 of 24 Rampage attempts before exiting. Lack stopped all seven San Antonio shots he saw in relief.
The Rampage and Wolves square off in Game 3 of their series on Tuesday (8:00 ET, AHL Live) at Allstate Arena as the series shifts to Chicago.