TEXAS TOAST
SAN ANTONIO – With two goals on Friday night, Jeremy Williams established a new career-high six-game point streak, however the Grand Rapids Griffins suffered a 4-2 loss at the hands of the San Antonio Rampage at the AT&T Center.
Williams has recorded four goals and four assists in his last five games, while Andy Delmore assisted Williams’ second goal for his fifth helper in seven games.
The loss drops Grand Rapids’ overall record to 17-11-0-1, while San Antonio’s win snapped a five-game losing streak and improved their record to 10-14-3-1. The Rampage have enjoyed much success against the Griffins at the AT&T Center this season, scoring 18 goals in just three games, but they sit in last place in the West Division, holding a 4-13-2-1 mark since they last hosted Grand Rapids on October 18.
Tomarrow night, the Griffins will continue their second straight weekend of playing three games in three nights, when they visit the Taxas Stars for an 8:00 p.m. EST face off at the Cedar Park Center.
The Griffins grabbed a 1-0 lead in the first period when Williams took a drop pass from Michael Nylander and unleashed a laser from 45 feet, beating the glove of Josh Tordjman at the 15:07 mark.
San Antonio came back to knot the score at 1-1 with a power play goal at 5:34 of the middle frame. With a face off in the right circle of their offensive zone, the Rampage won the draw back to Sean Sullivan at the point, where he took a wrist shot that was tipped into the Griffins’ net by Colin Long.
The second period saw back-and-forth action that started when Kevin Porter sized up Thomas McCollum from the left circle, and went top shelf with a wrist shot at 13:27.
Then, at 17:51, Williams caught an outlet pass from Delmore and sprinted down the ice to snap a shot off the inside of the right goalpost, and past Tordjman for his second goal of the night.
San Antonio broke a short-lived 2-2 tie when, after the Griffins failed on a breakout attempt, MacGregor Sharp took a shot from the left point that Matt Watkins deflected into the Griffins’ net at 19:14.
In the third period, Grand Rapids fell into a two-goal deficit at 6:52 when Chad Kolarik threw a shot at the Griffins’ net, and from just above the goal line on the left side of the crease, Sharp gathered the rebound to flip it over a sprawled out McCollum.
Grand Rapids battled through the rest of a physical third period, but were unable to converge on 12 shots, including the last 1:13 of regulation when they pulled McCollum for an extra attacker.
McCollum turned aside 33 shots in net for Grand Rapids, while Tordjman made 26 saves for San Antonio.
Three Stars: 1. SA Watkins (game-winning goal); 2. SA Long (1 goal); 3. SA Porter (1 goal).
AHLlive Video Highlights |
WOOD Radio Highlights: Williams goal 1 Williams goal 2 |
Official Game Report |