ALLEN TAKES OVER RUSH IN OPENING GAME

(RAPID CITY, SD) – Kenton Miller brought the Rapid City Rush within one after 20 minutes of play, but the Allen Americans rallied for five goals in the last 40 minutes to take an 8-3 win over the Rush on opening night.

Allen opened up scoring in what ended up being a five-goal first period. In the midst of the second Rush power play of the night, Jonathan Lessard went down the ice on a two-on-one with Casey Pierro-Zabotel. At the last second in front of the Rush net, Pierro-Zabotel dished to Lessard, who tucked the puck behind Rush net-minder Storm Phaneuf to give Allen a 1-0 lead on a shorthanded goal at 11:43 of the first period (Pierro Zabotel earned the lone assist). The Rush tied it up later thanks to the forecheck of Marcus Ortiz. Ortiz swooped behind the net and let off a backhand shot that was originally stopped by Allen goaltender, Stephon Williams. The rebound sailed in the slot to an oncoming Kyle Dutra, who blasted the puck by Williams to tie the game at 1-1 with 7:08 left in the first (Ortiz and Kenton Miller assisted). Allen took a 2-1 lead thanks to Alex Schoenborn’s wrist shot from the far circle of the Rush zone with 5:07 left in the first (Zach Hall notched the lone assist). Zach Pochiro made it 3-1 moments later when he weaved through the defense and in close range and backhanded a shot over Phaneuf with 2:35 left in the period (Eric Roy had the only helper). Kenton Miller brought the Rush back within one on a crazy bounce of a goal: he took a shot on the Rush attacking blue line that went off the glass, bounced off of Williams, and in, bringing the Rush within one just 17 seconds later (the goal was unassisted). The 3-2 deficit was the closest the Rush would stay for the remainder of the game.

Jonathan Lessard started scoring again in the second period, slamming a rebound off of a Joel Chouinard shot, pushing Allen to a 4-2 lead with 12:17 left in the second period (Chouinard and Mathieu Aubin assisted). The goal prompted the removal of Phaneuf from the Rush net, and Christian Frey played the rest of regulation. Zach Pochiro scored moments later after Rush forward Ryan Tesink clanked the cross-bar of the Allen net. The rebound came to Casey Pierro-Zabotel, who fired a “Hail Mary” pass to Pochiro, who then fired a shot off the far post and in on Phaneuf to give the Americans a 5-2 lead with 10:42 left in the second (Pierro-Zabotel earned the only helper). The goal prompted the removal of Storm Phaneuf, and Christian Frey manned the Rush net for the rest of the game. Olivier Archambault made it 6-2 in favor of the Americans when he deflected a Mike Gunn shot in front of Frey with 7:53 left in the period (Gunn earned the only assist). Casey Pierro-Zabotel earned his third point of the game with his only goal of the night, slamming a rebound off of a Pochiro shot to make it 7-2 with 3:40 left in the second (Pochiro and Archambault assisted). Darik Angeli scored the final Rush goal of the game on an impressive backhand shot through the Allen low slot, taking a pass that deflected off of Ryan Tesink in for pay dirt behind Williams to bring the Rush deficit to 7-3 with 20.7 seconds left in the frame (Tesink and Jimmy DeVito earned the assists).

Joel Chouinard, in his first game as Americans captain, put the exclamation point on the board for Allen with the 11th and final goal of the game between both teams. With 7:17 gone by in the final period, Chouinard trailed into the Rush zone and potted an Olivier Archambault rebound to bring the game to its eventual final score of 8-3 (Archambault and Dalton Thrower assisted).

Storm Phaneuf stopped 7 of 11 in 28:24 of ice time, suffering the loss (0-1-0), while Christian Frey played in 31:36 in relief, stopping 15 of 19 in the effort.

The Rush and Americans will square off in a rematch tomorrow night on “Affiliation Night”, with puck drop slated for 7:05 p.m. MST.

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