(RAPID CITY, SD) – It took 35:47 of hockey to break a scoreless deadlock, but Josh Elmes and Darby Llewellyn scored 16 seconds apart in the final period, and coupled with Adam Carlson’s 40 saves, the Rapid City Rush capped off their weekend series against the Allen Americans with a 2-0 victory on Sunday. The win gave the Rush 4 points out of 6 in the weekend series, and now 6 out of 8 points in their last 4 home games.
Adam Carlson and Jeremy Brodeur for the Rush and Americans, respectively, traded major save after save and blow after blow, but neither goaltender surrendered at tally through the first 20 minutes of play. Carlson stopped 12 shots, while Brodeur stopped 11.
In the second period, it was more of the same: Carlson and Brodeur failed to allow a goal through 40 minutes. The duel was on, with Brodeur stopping 28 through two periods, and Carlson stoning 26.
The dam finally broke on the Americans end when a Spencer Asuchak kneeing penalty put the Rush on their sixth power play of the night. Just 27 seconds into the power play, and with 14:13 left in the game, Mason McCarty carried the puck to the near corner of the Allen zone, and Andrew Radjenovic won a battle there to Josh Elmes on the blue line. Elmes fired a shot by a screened Brodeur and gave the Rush a long-awaited 1-0 lead on his first career goal in the ECHL (Radjenovic and McCarty assisted). Exactly 16 seconds later, Darby Llewellyn potted a rebound off of a series of shots generated by Garrett Klotz and Alec Baer in front of the crease to make it 2-0 with 13:57 left in the game (Klotz and Baer assisted). Carlson stood tall for the remainder of regulation, and held on with timely saves down the stretch to secure a 2-0 Rush win.
Carlson stopped all 40 shots he saw for his first win with the Rush in his first start with the team (1-0-1-0).
The Rush now travel to Oklahoma to play the Tulsa Oilers in a “three-in-three” this weekend, starting Thursday, November 1st. Puck drop for game one is slated for 6:05 p.m. MST.
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