A PAIR IN EACH PERIOD LEADS TO ALLEN SWEEP

(ALLEN, TX) – Dante Salituro and Alex Guptill scored 21 seconds apart late in the second period to give the Rapid City Rush some life, but the Allen Americans, behind a pair of goals in all three periods of play, defeated the Rush by a 6-2 score on Saturday night. The win gives the Americans a sweep of the Rush on the weekend, and 4 wins in 4 games head-to-head.

Allen took a 2-0 lead into the first intermission on two goals scored 1:37 apart. The first came at 6:34 of the first period when Casey Pierro-Zabotel capitalized on a Rush turnover in the neutral zone and broke on a partial two-on-one with Dave Makowski. Pierro-Zabotel passed to Makowski, who blasted a one-timer by Rush net-minder Christian Frey to give Allen a 1-0 lead (Pierro-Zabotel and Colby McAuley assisted). Less than two minutes later, Daniel Leavens picked up another neutral zone turnover and went on a two-on-one with Bryan Moore. Leavens passed to Moore, who finished with a wrist shot over Frey to give the Americans their 2-0 advantage with 8:01 played in the first (Leavens had the only assist).

Just over three minutes into the second period, Michael Sdao was assessed a match penalty for an illegal check to the head of Connor Reilly, and ejected from the game. The sequence of events resulted in a five-minute major power play for Allen, and Dave Makowski capitalized with over half of the advantage gone by one a one-timer from the blue line to triple the Allen advantage to 3-0 with 6:34 gone by in the second (Joel Chouinard and Casey Pierro-Zabotel assisted). Over the midway point of the second, a turnover behind the Rush net came free to Spencer Asuchak, who found McAuley open in the slot for a shot to advance the Americans lead to 4-0 with 8:26 left in the period (Asuchak had the only assist). Like last night’s counterpart, it wasn’t’ until the final two minutes of the second that the Rush would hit paydirt, and they did so in less than thirty seconds. Dante Salituro buried a centering pass from Evan Janssen to get the Rush on the board, sending the pass over the shoulder of Allen goalie Jeremy Brodeur to cut the Rush deficit to 4-1 with 1:49 left in the second (Janssen and Josh Elmes assisted). Exactly 21 seconds later, Kenton Miller fired a backhander towards Brodeur’s net, and Alex Guptill potted the rebound to bring the Rush to a 4-2 deficit heading into the third (Miller and Pavel Jenys assisted).

The momentum from the Rush goals ended 4:24 into the third period, when Bryan Moore found Jonathan Lessard open from behind the Rush net. Moore centered to Lessard, who faked a shot and then buried to extend the Allen lead to 5-2 (Moore had the only assist). Moore put an exclamation point on the scoresheet on the final Rush power play of the game to give Allen its eventual four-goal victory. With 4:57 left in the game, the puck was turned over by the Rush defense on the Allen blue line, and Mathieu Aubin sprung the puck ahead to Moore, who finished his breakaway by Frey for the shorthanded tally, and the eventual 6-2 win (Aubin had the lone assist).

Christian Frey saw a career-high 45 shots on net, turning 39 of them aside in the loss (0-5-0).

The Rush briefly return home for a rivalry clash with the Colorado Eagles on December 6 this Wednesday night. Puck drop is slated for 7:05 p.m. at Premier Home Mortgage Ice in Rushmore Plaza Civic Center.

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