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Flames rally in third to beat Rampage

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Staff report | Saturday, April 12, 2008 11:51 PM CDT | () comments

SAN ANTONIO — The Quad-City Flames aren’t packing it in, at least not until today’s season’s finale is over.

David Van der Gulik scored two third-period goals within 44 seconds of each other as the Flames rallied to beat a motivated San Antonio Rampage squad 3-2 on Saturday night.

The Flames trailed 2-1 until Van der Gulik’s first goal found the net 9:43 into the third, and he beat Rampage goalie Josh Tordjman moments later on an assist from Carsen Germyn.

The goals were the 18th and 19th of the season for Van der Gulik.

“We did a good job of getting more pucks to the net,” Flames coach Ryan McGill said. “We had opportunities in the first two periods, but their goalie was certainly very good.”

Still, the job wasn’t done.

Quad-Cities goalie Curtis McElhinney turned his game up a notch to keep the Flames on top. He stopped a breakaway opportunity with 3:23 to go, then withstood a furious Rampage flurry at the end of regulation to seal the victory.

“In the last minute he had to make three unbelievable saves,” McGill said. “Our guys did a good job of burying their chances in the third period.”

McElhinney finished with 29 saves, allowing two second-period goals.

Germyn posted Q-C’s first goal at 1:37 of the first period.

The Flames improved to

37-32-3-7 on the season and remain one point behind sixth-place Peoria in the Western Division standings. The Rivermen beat the Iowa Stars 4-1 on Saturday night.

The Flames’ victory prevented San Antonio from getting the leg up on second place in the division and home-ice advantage in the first round of the AHL playoffs.

The two teams close the regular season tonight at 5.