Eakins was proved right as Colby Ropak’s goal at 1:34 of overtime gave the San Antonio Rampage a 5-4 win over the Marlies in American Hockey League action on Friday.

“It’s hard as hell to kill a 4-on-3 these days and I thought our guys did a half-decent job at it,” said Eakins. “As soon as you see a guy going to the box in overtime you’re almost guaranteed that game’s over.”

Ropak hit a one-time shot from the point with his team on the power play while Bill Thomas, with two, Evan Barlow and Keith Seabrook also scored for the Rampage (25-20-2).

Ropak’s shot beat goaltender Mark Owuya who had come on in place of started Ben Scrivens after the Marlies’ starter surrendered a third period lead in the span of two minutes and 37 seconds.

“I thought they got two soft goals,” said Eakins. “I made a goaltending chance because I didn’t think our goaltender was up to snuff on those two. Then I thought the team battled back hard.”

Toronto (26-17-5) got goals from Jesse Blacker, Matt Frattin, Juraj Mikus and Phillipe Dupuis.

Blacker’s goal, his first in the AHL, came when let a wrist shot go from the left face-off circle that beat Dov Grumet-Morris for an early 1-0 lead five minutes into the game.

San Antonio tied it early in the second when Thomas received a pass from Mark Cullen right in front of the net and waited for Scrivens to go down before backhanding it in.

Near the halfway mark of the second period, Philippe Dupuis won a faceoff in the San Antonio zone that went right to Frattin and he made no mistake for his 10th goal of the season.

Barlow tied things up at 5:14 of the second, as he stepped over the Marlies blue-line and let a quick shot go that got by a screened Scrivens.

The Marlies just couldn’t hold onto a lead and Thomas’ second spelled the end of Srivens’ night at 7:54 of the third. The right-winger let a soft shot go from a bad angle that Scrivens couldn’t squeeze and it trickled, giving the Rampage their first lead of the night, 3-2.

Owuya came in for Toronto and stopped five of seven shots.

“This team needs better goaltending and I wasn’t cutting it so the coach made the change,” said Scrivens.

The goalie changed briefly lifted the Marlies as the Rampage lead didn’t last long when Toronto equalized 54 seconds later with Mikus’ goal at 8:48. Dupuis gave the Marlies the lead once again with a hard shot from the left side.

Once again Toronto couldn’t close out their opposition and San Antonio forced overtime with just over two minutes left in the third when Seabrook snapped home a shot from the slot after taking a pass from James Wright.

“Our goal is the playoffs so once we get there, every game’s going to be a close one,” said Scrivens. “We’re going to have to learn, myself included, how to close games out like that.”