A pair of third-period goals by rookie Vincent Trocheck spoiled the Wolves’ home-opening weekend.
Trocheck scored his first two goals as a professional just over five minutes apart as the San Antonio Rampage beat the Wolves 4-2 on Sunday at Allstate Arena. The Wolves were looking for a sweep after beating the Rampage 3-1 on Saturday.
“That’s why there’s 20 minutes in a period — you have to play all 20, right?” coach John Anderson said. “We had chances to win. But for a team that’s supposed to score goals, we’re not scoring goals.”
Trocheck’s first goal gave the Rampage a 3-1 lead 18 seconds into the final period. The Wolves answered 46 seconds later when Mark Mancari scored his second goal in as many games.
After missing on a few chances to tie it on the power play, the Wolves fell back into a two-goal hole when Trocheck scored his second goal.
“That fourth one was the back-breaker,” defenseman Taylor Chorney said. “We were kind of coming back. If we could have maybe gotten one on that power play, things would have been looking a little different.”
The Rampage broke a 1-1 tie in the final second of the middle period when Mike Mottau fired a rebound into an unguarded net just before the horn.
Trailing 1-0 after the first, the Wolves tied it on David Shields’ first career AHL goal. Shields took a cross-ice pass from Alexandre Bolduc and lifted a wrist shot into the top corner over the right shoulder of Michael Houser.
“Would have felt a lot better if we’d won the game,” said Shields, who had no goals and nine assists in his previous 110 AHL games. “It was a tough loss. We can only get better from it.”
