RUSH SURGE IN THE SECOND, STAVE OFF ALLEN RALLY TO FORCE GAME 6

SLAPSHOT POSTGAME COVERAGE PRESENTED BY ASSURANT SOLUTIONS

RUSH SURGE IN THE SECOND, STAVE OFF ALLEN RALLY TO FORCE GAME 6

(RAPID CITY, SD) – The Rapid City Rush unloaded four goals in the second period, but the Allen Americans rallied and made things interesting in the third period, only to fall to the Rush by a 7-4 score in Game 5 of the ECHL’s Central Division Finals on Sunday night. The win prevents the Rush from being eliminated and shifts the series back to Allen for Game 6 on Tuesday night, May 12th.

For a fourth time in the series, and a third consecutive night, the Rush struck first. Daniel Barczuk rifled a one-timer off of a cross-ice Mathieu Brisebois pass deep in the Americans zone and burned Allen goaltender Joel Rumpel to put the Rush up 1-0 with 8:10 gone by in the first.

The second period saw the Rush play their most offensively potent period of the postseason and of the series. Jesse Schultz picked things up for the Rush with 68 seconds gone by in the period, sniping a Cody Ferriero pass by Rumpel to double the Rush lead to 2-0. On the second Rush power play of the game, Kevin Harvey inked himself on the scoresheet, scoring his first goal of the postseason from the low slot to triple the Rush lead to 3-0 at 8:09 of the second. 59 seconds later, Riley Weselowski found a pass from the far wall of the Rush attacking zone and fired the puck through traffic, off of Rumpel and in to bring the Rush lead to 4-0 with 9:08 played in the middle frame. In an interesting turn of events, the Americans were awarded a five-on-three advantage and pulled Rumpel from the net to change it to a six-on-three power play. Vincent Arseneau tipped a Chad Costello shot by Rush netminder Danny Battochio on the three-man advantage to put the Americans on the board, down 4-1, at the 11:04 mark of the second frame. Towards the end of the period, however, Jonathan Narbonne scored his first career postseason goal, finishing a two-on-one shorthanded break with Jesse Schultz, re-establishing the four-goal advantage of the Rush with 59.1 seconds remaining in the middle frame.

Despite the large Rush advantage, the Americans rallied and made things very interesting in the last 20 minutes. Within a span of 5:43 of playing time, the Americans struck three times and brought the game to within 1. Chad Costello started things off with 2:53 gone by in the third to bring the score to 5-2 on his second point of the night. At 7:48 of the third, Americans Captain Jamie Schaafsma found the puck on the near side of the Rush blue line and fired it through traffic past Battochio to cut the deficit to 5-3. 38 seconds later, Chris Crane fired a rebound off of a Greger Hanson shot to put the Americans within striking distance at 5-4. Scott Brannon ended the Americans rally of three straight goals with his second of the postseason, completing a Dylan Clarke pass on a one-timer past Rumpel to give the Rush some breathing room at 6-4 with 4:45 left in regulation. Jonathan Narbonne sealed it with an empty-netter with 58 seconds left in the game to lift the Rush to a 7-4 win, staving off elimination to force Game 6.

Danny Battochio evened his postseason record to 6-6-0 with 27 saves on 31 shots.

Game 6 is set for Tuesday night, May 12th, at the Allen Events Center, with puck drop slated for 6:05 p.m. MST.

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