RUSH RALLY FALLS SHORT IN FINAL PRESEASON GAME

(RAPID CITY, SD) – Chris Ciotti scored twice for the Rapid City Rush, and James Melindy added a power play goal, but the Rush fell short of their late comeback against the Colorado Eagles and fell by a 5-3 count to their archrivals on Saturday night at Premier Home Mortgage Ice in Rushmore Plaza Civic Center in their final preseason game.

Two contests in a row, the Eagles flew out to a 1-0 first period league. At 5:01 of the opening frame, Eagles captain Trent Daavettila slammed home a rebound past Rush net-minder Danny Battochio off of an Adrian Veideman shot. With just over two minutes to play in the same frame, Colorado’s Nathan Moon went on a two-on-one break and sent a wrist shot by Battochio to double the Eagles advantage to 2-0 heading into the period break.

The Rush struck in the middle frame to cut their deficit in half thanks to the efforts of rookie forward Chris Ciotti. His first of two came off of a deflection in front of the net of Colorado’s rookie goaltender Kris Lazaruk on a shot from Rush defenseman Michael Young with 5:34 gone by in the second to bring the score to 2-1. Jesse Mychan, however, re-established Colorado’s multi-goal lead on a feed from Trent Daavettila on the second Rush backstopper, Nic Riopel. The ignition of the goal lamp brought the score to 3-1 heading into the third.

The game ended in a frenzy in the last three minutes of play, starting off with the Eagle’s fourth goal of the night. Jesse Mychan added another tally as he threaded a shot past the blocker of Riopel to bring the Eagles lead to 4-1 with 2:55 left in the contest. Despite the three-goal hole, the Boys from the Black Hills battled back and put on a show. On the final Rush power play of the game, new Rush defenseman James Melindy unloaded a bomb on a Kale Kerbashian pass by Eagles goalie Tyler Bunz to bring the Rush to a 4-2 deficit with 1:51 left in the game. One minute and six seconds later, Ciotti doubled his goal total and brought the Rush within striking distance at 4-3, threading the puck by Bunz on a sharp angle from the near wall of the Rush attacking zone. Despite offensive zone possession within the remaining 30 seconds, Eagles defenseman Collin Bowman cleared the puck amidst a flurry in front of his net and sent the puck the full length of the ice into the empty net, sealing a 5-3 win.

Danny Battochio received the start and stopped 13 of 15 shots in 29:34 of work. The remaining 29:52 went to Nic Riopel, who halted 11 of 13 shots. The Rush avoided being shut out in the preseason, but fall to an 0-2 record, having lost both tilts to the Eagles, and look towards the start of the regular season in Idaho next week against their new West Division rivals, the Idaho Steelheads on Friday, October 16th.

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