The Rampage ended their season on somewhat of a high note yesterday. We came from behind and won in the last few mins of the game. This season was better than last and a lot closer than last for making the playoffs. In the end we were not consistent with our play and the 10 game losing streak at the beginning of the year did not help us one bit. Turris seperated his shoulder in the last few mins of the game as well. It was sad to see that happen to him, as he had back surgery last season and who knows if he will need it for his shoulder.

Som of the guys will be heading to Phoenix for the playoffs. You just might see them walking around the arena at the games. I wish the Coyotes nothing but the best in the playoffs. Will be cheering for them to go all the way.

LET'S GO COYOTES!

Some good points to the season.

• Kyle Turris and Brett MacLean have been bright spots for the Rampage.
• Mikkel Boedker has gotten better at playing the point.
• Francis Lessard plays hard every game.
• Alexandre Picard is a good thing
• We ARE NOT last in the division

Kyle and Brett have played great for us as of late and through the season. They work well together when on the same line.

Mikkel plays the point a lot during the games. He has gotten better but still needs a bit more work playing the point.

What to say about Francis, he is a hard worker and you don't want to be caught in a fight with him. Hopefully he will be back next season for us.

Alexandre is a breath of fresh air for this team. I don't know what his contract situation is but the Coyotes need to re-sign him if he is a free or restricted free agent.

It is hard to believe that we are not in last place in our division. Maybe the guys that come back next season can work off of that and not have a 10+ game losing streak.

The on thing that needs to be improved is the goaltending. This has always been a problem for us for the last 5 years.Too bad Pogge was Anahiem property, we seemed to play better when he was in net.

The trip is over, which is great for both players and fans. The team went 7-5-0-2 on the road this trip. Pretty good since most of the games were close ones. Most of them decided by one goal margins. This is one of the better road trips we have had in a few years.

Right now we are sitting 10 points behind the fourth place team. It will be interesting to see if we do make it into the playoffs. The guys just need to take it one game at a time and not sit on the lead during games. Which they have a tendency to do during games, when they have the lead.

The next few games:

• Wednesday March 3, Houston vs Rampage(FSN)
• Friday March 5, Rampage @ Houston(FSN)
• Saturday and Sunday March 6 & 7, Rockford vs Rampage
• Tuesday March 9, Peoria vs Rampage

(FSN) means the games will be shown on FOX Sports Network. I think it's nice to finally have some games televised.

I have been very busy the past few weeks, hence no post to write. I was helping family the last two home games before the guys left for their month long road trip. Then went on vacation, just got back yesterday the 9th.

So far on the road trip the guys are doing good, but we need to do a bit better. They are 3-1-0-2 with 8 pts gained on the trip so far. Next three games are this weekend starting Firday. Friday and Saturday's games are against Peoria while Sunday's game is against Chicago.

Well so far in the new year things have gone alright for the Rampage. Their record for this month so far is 4-5 which isnt too bad. There was also one suspension also to talk about. Francis Lessard got suspended do to a hit on Chris Chelios. I think he did not deserve to be suspended for that hit.

Video of hit  

Look around the 2:50 mark on the video.

The list of players that are out is a bit long.

• Kyle Turris (neck)
• Jeff May (unknown)
• Jonas Ahnelov (shoulder, out for whole season)
• Al Montoya (shoulder, most likely out for whole season)
• Colin Long (concussion like symptoms)
• Joel Perrault (ankle, day to day)
• David Spina (torn peck muscle, should be back in Feb.)

Rampage have seem to be getting things working again. We are only a few points away from a playoff spot. Turris and Boedker have been getting more points as of late. MacLean needs to work on not getting knocked down so much in the corners. These past two games it seemed like we were sitting on the lead. 

We play on the road on Wednesday and Thursday and then play at home on Friday.

Well the streak went to 5 winless but ended last night. Last night's game had the teddy bear toss. Lots of bears were thrown onto the ice after the first goal was scored. The guys came from behind to win this game 4-2 against Grand Rapids. Next two games are today in Rockford and Sunday in Milwaukee. Now let's see if we can get a long winning streak going.

Well we got the streak to 11 winless games. Which is semi good news considering what happened last season. We then won 3 in a row with that ending tonight against the Texas Stars. The 3 games we did win, the guys played hard and fought their way back when they were down. The first win of the 3 game streak was Nov. 29 against Milwaukee. In that game Al Montoya got hurt in the first period, he seperated his shoulder and will be out 3 months.

The second win was in Houston at an 11 am kids game. We got behind fast in the second period but a few moments later we came back and won the game. The third win, was also against Houston in our building.

Tonight's game we seemed to fall apart after we scored the first goal. Most of the time we could not complete our passes. It seriously seemed like we were back on the winless streak. The guys go on a mini road trip starting in Grand Rapids and ends with us in Houston on the 16.  

Not only have we gone 10 games winless, but the Coyotes have fired head coach Greg Ireland.  We shall see what tomorrow's game is like with Ray Edwards as the interim head coach. Hopefully we will win, but anything can happen.

This losing streak has extended to 9 games. We have gotten a bit better the last two game but not good enough to win. The defense hasn't really been there to help out our goalie. The offense is somewhat not there either. When we shoot the puck at the net, it either goes wide or goes up high enough to hit the netting at the ends of the ice.

It was very interesting this past week when Anaheim pulled their players out of San Antonio. I don't think we will know why they did what they did. Who knows maybe that will spark something tonight against Peoria.

                                                       Viktor Tikhonov fighting for the puck along the boards.

 The Rampage's losing streak climbed to 7 games in a row. We are now tied with 15 points but stand in 5th place.  It seems like we can't get any offence going at all at the moment. The closest we came to winning was on the road this past week in Peoria. That game ended in our first shootout loss of the season. The guys are off until Friday which seems to not be helping us at all.

Friday Chicago comes to San Antonio for the first time this season. This game is going to be a good one as ex Red Wing Chris Chelios is playing for Chicago. I hope a lot of people will be at this Friday's game, it's a chance to see the oldest player in the league play. Then Sunday we play the Texas Stars, should be a good match up.

Few up and down moves have happened also. Mikkel Boedker has been sent up and back down within a few days of each other, Heshka and Schelmko went up to Phoenix. Nick Ross has been called up from the Las Vegas Wranglers of the ECHL, Phoenix's new minor league affiliate. Matt Belesky was sent back down, while Mark Mitera has been sent down to Anaheim's ECHL team.

                                                           Brett MacLean fighting for position in front of the net.

This past three games over the weekend were horrible. When the guys would pass the puck to each other it would get turned over to quickly. The guys would not shoot the puck at the net, instead they would pass it most of the time.
Defense was no help at all this past weekend. Shaun Heshka was trying to do a cross ice pass when, the puck went off of Tordjman's skate and into the net. Basically he scored the goal for the other team.

There are three teams behind us with 12 points each, while we have 14. Today's game against one of teams is critical that we win. That way we can still maintain the lead in our division. Our division is tightened up while we lost those three games. Hopefully last week's team does not show up at all when we play against the Texas Stars tonight.

                                                        Kyle Turris fighting for the puck along with Brett MacLean.

The two home games against the Grand Rapids Griffins was great to see. The first game the Rampage came out firing on all cylinders. We were able to score 6 goals in the first period alone. Two of those 6 goals were scored 10 seconds apart, setting the franchise record for the Rampage. The Griffins were able to score one goal in the first period to make the score 6-1.The second period of the game seemed kind of sluggish. The guys played basically all of that period in the Griffins end. The Griffins scored 3 gaols in the second to make the score 6-4. Joel Perrault would score the 7th goal of the night for the Rampage in the third period. Turris had a goal, assit and a penalty for holding. Boedker scored the last goal of the first period. Almost forgot to add who was in net, Tordjman was the goaltender for this game.

The second game was better played over all in my opinion. The scoring didn't start till the second period by Kolarik getting the goal, Turris and Boedker get the assits. The Boedker, Turris and Tikhonov all had points in the game which is great to see. Rampage scored 5 goals in the second period, by the end of the period the score was 5-1. Then in the third we were able to score two more goal to make the final score of the game 7-2. Montoya did a great job in net for us this game. He even had to face a penalty shot in the third period, which he stopped.

These two games have kept us in the lead in our division and overall league. It's nice to be ahead so far this season after having the bad start we did last season. I think we can go far this season by the way our guys are playing. These next three home games will be a test for the guys. Friday we play Hamilton, Sat and Sun we play Houston. The last game we played Houston they gave us our first regulation loss of the season.

                                      
The Rampage have started their 8th hockey season with a win over the Texas Stars. The home opener was alright, a few big hits here and there. Turris almost got into a fight with a guy from the other team. The crowd was really into the game, had just over 7000 people there.

 

Montoya did a really good job in the first and second game of the season. Even though we lost to the Stars in OT I think its a positive thing. We got 3 out of 4 possible points, which put us in first place not only in our division but the entire league.

 

Our next 2 games are on the road against Abbotsford Heat, the affiliate of the Calgary Flames. This will be the furthest west the Rampage have traveled in their 8 year history of being in the AHL.

                                                         

We lost the preseason game, 2-1. The game started 30 mins late due to the Rampage having to change jerseys. Both teams wore black jersey during warm ups. Tordjman was in net; May, Sullivan, Frank and Zimmerman played a bunch of mins during the game.

 Guys that I saw that were sitting out for this game were; Chad Kolarik, Jonas Ahnelov, Joel Gistedt, and Francis Lessard.

This preseason should be very interesting as we play one extra game this season. That is due to the fact that the Texas Stars joined the AHL this season. The first preseason game is on September 24th, at 7:30pm at the Northwoods Ice Center. Then the next two games are away, on the 26th, we play the Houston Aeros at Sugarland Ice Center at 6pm. The next game is on the 27th against the Texas Stars at their new arena Cedar Park Center, at 3pm.

Preseason Schedule

I do plan on attending the practice that is at Northwoods Ice Center. I will be there with my camera getting as many pics as I can of the guys we have in camp.

Should be a good season, Two new teams to play against this season. The two new teams are the Texas Stars ( affiliate of the Dallas Stars) and Abbotsford Heat (affiliate of the Calgary Flames). Looks like the Rampage start their month long road trip a bit early which is fine with me. The team goes on this trip every season due to the rodeo coming to town in February. Hopefully this road trip will be a good one and treat the guys well.



SA Rampage schedule

     I think this bid was a bad bid not only to Coyotes fans but to Rampage fans as well. I do not see the Rampage being moved in any way, shape or form to Thunder Bay. I don't understand why Ice Edge would want to move the Rampage further away from Phoenix. Travel cost would be a bit more than what it is now if Phoenix decided to call up a player or send a player down. The Rampage are owned by Spurs, Sports and Entertainment, with that being said it would not be possible for them to be moved. In order for them to be moved the Spurs would have to sell the franchise or Ice Edge would have to buy a dormant franchise.

     As for my view on games the Coyotes would have to play in Canada. I would not like the fact that I paid x amount of dollars for the full season to see them play at Jobing.com Arena, just to get five games taken away. I would want some of my money to be reimbursed if that were to happen. Five games might not seem like a lot to some, but to those that had to save money to get their tickets it is a lot. Those five games could be a few dollars to hundreds, depending on your price level. The Coyotes home is in Phoenix not somewhere in Canada.

Ice Edge would not only be doing harm to one team/ city but two.