UTAH TAKES GAME TWO OVER RUSH

(RAPID CITY, SD) – Ryan Walters and Triston Grant ignited the goal lamp for the Rapid City Rush, but the Utah Grizzlies powered through them with five goals to take a 5-2 win on Friday night in the second of a three-game set.

Utah scored the first goal for a second consecutive game against the Rush, and it held as the only tally in the opening frame. With just 1:55 gone by in the action, Utah was playing in the Rush zone in the midst of a delayed penalty against their opposition. The Grizzlies hammered the Rush net, and at the end of the rally it was Gabriel Verpaelst that chipped a rebound by Rush net-minder, Adam Morrison, to give Utah their 1-0 lead after one period (the goal was unassisted).

The Rush tied the game up early in the second period, but Utah once again overtook them with a pair of goals from Mike Pelech. Ryan Walters got the Rush on the board at 5:53 when he slammed a back-door pass from Ryan Misiak by Utah goaltender, Kevin Boyle, squaring the game up at 1-1 (Misiak and Mike Monfredo assisted). The Grizzlies took the lead back at the midway point of the period when Pelech notched his first of two on a scramble in front of Morrison’s net, pushing Utah to a 2-1 lead with 9:27 gone by in the second (Austen Brassard and Mathieu Aubin assisted). Pelech added a second around four minutes later when he slammed a puck in the short side of Morrison on a well-covered near post to make it 3-1 Utah lead (Phil Pietroniro and Mathieu Aubin assisted, the latter earning his second of the game).

Utah started to separate from the Rush within the final six minutes of the game. Zac Larraza extended the Grizzlies lead to 4-1 when he deflected a Tim Daly shot by Morrison with 5:06 left in the game (Daly and former Rush defenseman Garrett Haar assisted). Triston Grant made things interesting with over two minutes left, taking advantage of good offensive pressure. After Anthony Collins and T.J. Sarcona hammered the Utah net, Grant slammed home the rebound in Boyle’s crease to make it 4-2 with 2:06 left in the game (Sarcona and Collins notched the helpers). With the net empty for the extra attacker, Mike Monfredo was denied of a goal for a third time in four games by two inches of hollow iron. The shot was so hard that the puck rolled the full length of the ice and rolled on edge into the net, giving Utah a 5-2 lead with less than two minutes to play, and eventually the win by the same score. Marc-Andre Levesque was credited with the goal as the last Grizzlies skater to touch the puck.

Adam Morrison suffered the loss for the Rush, stopping 18 of 22 shots faced (15-16-4).

Both teams close out their season series tomorrow at 7:05 p.m. MST at Premier Home Mortgage Ice at Rushmore Plaza Civic Center.

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