RUSH WINNING STREAK ENDS TO IDAHO

(RAPID CITY, SD) – Dante Salituro struck twice for the Rapid City Rush, but a strong second period of 3 goals on 18 shots from the Idaho Steelheads ultimately powered the latter to a 4-3 win on Wednesday night. The loss ends the Rush winning streak at 4 games.

Both teams ended 20 minutes of play deadlocked, with special teams dictating the scoresheet. With the Rush on a five-on-three power play, Dante Salituro picked up the rebound on a shot from Matt Caito on the blue line, and zipped it by Steelheads goaltender Ryan Faragher to give the Rush a 1-0 lead just 6:01 into the contest (Caito and Ian Brady assisted). The Rush saw their impressive penalty-killing streak come to an end in the last five minutes of the period when the Steelheads used their own special teams to square the game up. With 4:22 left in the first, Steven McParland took a pass from Cody Corbett of the blue line and fired the puck from a sharp angle over the shoulder of Adam Vay from the glove side of the net to tie the game at 1-1 (Corbett and Brady Brassart assisted).

Idaho took over with three goals in the second, carrying a multi-goal advantage into the final period. Within a span of under two minutes, three goals were exchanged, starting with Will Merchant deflecting a blue line shot past Vay to give the Steelheads a 2-1 lead at 5:46 of the second (Corbin Baldwin and Justin Parizek assisted). Just 56 seconds later, Parizek deflected a Joe Faust shot from the blue line to put Idaho up 3-1 with 6:42 gone by in the frame (Faust and Brady Brassart assisted). Rush Head Coach Daniel Tetrault called a timeout to settle his team, and the break from the action worked. Exactly 41 seconds after the Steelheads tally, Salituro took advantage of chaos in front of the Steelheads net and fired a rebound by Faragher to cut the deficit to 3-2 with 7:23 played in the second (Jimmy DeVito and Alex Guptill assisted). Idaho got the last word of the period and re-established their two-goal lead when Cody Corbett came off of the Rush blue line and zipped a shot by Vay, who was screened by around 5 players in front to give the Steelheads a 4-2 lead heading into the third with 5:25 left in the second (Will Merchant and Joe Faust assisted).

Alex Guptill put the exclamation point on the scoresheet with a goal in the waning seconds of the game. With an extra-attacker and empty net for his team, Guptill fired a loose puck from Peter Sivak by Faragher to bring the game to its final score of 4-3 with 4.9 seconds left (Sivak earned the lone assist).

Adam Vay fell for the first time in net for the Rush, stopping 29 of 33 shots in the defeat (2-1-0).

Both teams will rematch Friday, November 17th, at Premier Home Mortgage Ice in Rushmore Plaza Civic Center with puck drop slated for 7:05 p.m.

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