RUSH CAP OFF AN UNDEFEATED ROAD TRIP WITH WIN AGAINST THE MALLARDS

(MOLINE, IL) – For the second consecutive night, the Rapid City Rush played the role of visitor to yet another CHL home opener. After defeating the Wichita Thunder and spoiling their home opener with a hard fought 2-1 win, the Rush would replicate their homewrecking ways, spoiling the Quad City Mallards’ opener by a score of 6-4, made possible in part due to multi-point efforts from Trisitin Llewellyn, Jared Brown, Jesse Schultz, and a game-winner from Ryan Palmer with 4:10 left in the game.

It would seem without having played any preseason games that the Quad City Mallards would look flat coming out of the gate, but that was not the case at all in the first 20 minutes. 5:14 into their home opener, the Mallards would ink themselves on the scoresheet first, thanks to a perfectly executed 2-on-1 one-timer finished by Jim McKenzie, off the assists from Jeff Lee and Benjamin Deiude-Fauvel. Without any rust to shake off, the Mallards would add another tally to the board, taking advantage of a lapse in judgment on the Rush bench. As the Rush went for a line change, the puck found its way to neutral ice, where Mallards forward Gabriel Levesque would go one-on-one against Rush netminder Tim Boron and emerge victorious, giving the Mallards a 2-0 lead with 4:05 left in the contest. Rapid City would have two power play opportunities to try and knot the game up as the period progressed, with the first one being killed off and the second one cut short 18 seconds in, as Scott Wray would head to the box for a boarding call as the period ended.

The second period would end up being a turning point in the game for both squads on the ice. Rapid City would ignite the goal lamp just under 10 minutes into the second frame of action, thanks to Eric Giosa finishing on a heads up rebound off a Jared Brown turnaround shot to cut the Mallards lead in half at 2-1. After killing off a key powerplay, Rapid City would once again benefit off of a heads up play, thanks to Tristin Llewellyn making use of his exit from the penalty box. He would go on a one-on-one matchup similar to Gabriel Levesque’s first period goal, and would also see the same result, as he would five-hole Mallard goaltender Ty Rimmer to tie the game up at 2 a piece with 6:18 left in the second act. Quad City would get the last word in a period filled with 30 minutes of assessed penalties, as Jim McKenzie would light up the lamp for his second of the night and giving Quad City back the lead. With a flurry of penalties called before the second period buzzer, the Mallards would carry over 1:30 of a power play heading into the final 20 minutes.

The third period would see both teams score 5 goals, totaling the tally from the previous two periods alone. The Rush would tie the game thanks to last night’s hero, Konrad Reeder with 15:24 left in the game, with the help of Tristin Llewellyn and Jesse Schultz. Jared Brown would then fire a rocket from the far wall in the Quad City zone shortly after, giving the Rush their first lead of the contest with 11:32 left, thanks to brilliant passing from Brett Kostolanksy and Tristin Llewellyn, who would finish his evening with 3 points (1G, 2A). The Mallards would not go down without a fight, however, and would tie the game exactly 13 seconds later when Mike Stinziani dove in front of Tim Boron’s crease and popped the puck over his blocker, giving us a 4-4 score in the i-wireless Center with just over 10 minutes to play. The Rush would continue to capitalize on another well played faceoff, when Ryan Palmer sent home a game-winning snipe from the point to give the Rush a 5-4 lead with 4:10 left in the matchup. Jesse Schultz (2A on night) was key on the game-Winning%20Goal, having to win the faceoff to set Palmer up for his strike. With 40 seconds left, Scott Brannon would take advantage of Quad City’s empty net to secure a 6-4 win, and a season opening road sweep for the Rush.

Tristin Llewellyn had his second consecutive multi-point game, giving him 1 goal and 4 assists for 5 points on the road trip. Jesse Schultz and Jared Brown also locked up multi-point games as well, with Schultz assisting on the tying goal from Reeder, the game-winner from Palmer, and Brannon's empty net tally, and Brown tying the game himself and helping Eric Giosa start off the Rapid City offensive effort in the 2nd. Tim Boron stopped 40 of 44 shots in picking up his second win of the season, and helping Rapid City take a hard fought four points in two nights on the road.

The Rush will play the CHL’s newest team, and first ever Canadian expansion franchise in their home opener on October 25th. Game time is scheduled for 7:05 MST in the Rushmore Plaza Civic Center.

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Season tickets for the 2013-14 season are available now by calling the Rush office at 716-7825.

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