SALITURO AND SIVAK PACE RUSH TO WIN

(ALLEN, TX) – Dante Salituro scored twice, including the game-winning power play goal with 3:11 left in the game, and Peter Sivak also chipped in a pair of goals as the Rapid City Rush defeated the Allen Americans by a 5-3 score on Wednesday night. The game marked the first of the annual “Stock Show Road Trip” for the Rush, who started their slate of 6 games in 10 days in 5 different cities tonight.

The Rush and Americans traded goals under a minute apart in the last five minutes of the first period to take a 1-1 draw into the locker room. With 3:43 left in the first, Dante Salituro struck first for the Rush after coming out of the penalty box following the conclusion of his minor penalty. The puck was kicked into neutral ice to the former American, Daniel Leavens, who recognized right away he had an odd man break down the ice. After Salituro was denied a scoring chance, the rebound came back to Salituro, who zipped it through the five-hole of Allen goaltender Stephon Williams to give the Rush a 1-0 lead (Leavens had the lone assist). Allen countered exactly 42 seconds later when Zach Pochiro zipped a pass to Dalton Thrower from the far wall to the blue line of the Rush zone. Thrower sent the puck on net and it was originally stopped by Adam Vay, but Colby McAuley got by the coverage of his d-man in front of the net and pocketed the rebound to tie the game at 1-1 with 3:01 left in the first (Thrower and Pochiro assisted).

Colby McAuley struck for his second of the contest to help the Americans to a 3-2 lead after two periods, but not before Alex Schoenborn gave Allen the lead at the start of the second. With 2:01 gone by in the period, Schoenborn found a loose puck in the slot of the Rush zone on a delayed penalty call against the Rush and rifled it by Vay to give Allen a 2-1 lead (Alex Guptill had the lone assist). Peter Sivak tied things up shy of the midway point of the period when Daniel Leavens found him from behind the net in the slot area. Sivak, the reigning ECHL Player of the Week, sniped a shot by Williams to square the game at 2-2 with 11:08 left in the second period (Leavens and Riley Weselowski assisted). McAuley’s second then put Allen in the driver’s seat 3:01 later when Joel Chouinard’s blue line shot from the near side of the Rush zone was denied by a Vay kick save, but the rebound came to McAuley with an open net to give the Americans the 3-2 lead with 8:07 left in the frame (Chouinard and Spencer Asuchak assisted).

Undeterred, the Rush came back, and got a game-tying tally from their Captain in the early stages of the third period. With 16:08 left in the game, Chase Lang cut the middle of the Allen zone and found Riley Weselowski opened on the blue line. Lang went cross-ice with his pass, and Weselowski ripped a shot by the glove of Williams to square the game at 3-3 (Lang and Evan Janssen assisted). With 3:11 left in the game, the Rush would finally break the deadlock, and did so on their first, and only, power play of the game to get the win. Dante Salituro one-timed an Ian Brady pass from the far wall of the Americans zone that was banked off of an Americans defender and past Williams to give the Rush their kill-shot, and the lead at 4-3 (Brady and Sivak assisted). Sivak then drove in the dagger with an empty-net goal from his own faceoff circle the full length of the ice to seal the 5-3 win for the Rush (Adam Vay got the only assist).

Adam Vay, reigning ECHL Goaltender of the Week, stopped 34 of 37 shots on goal (8-8-1). Vay also picked up an assist on Sivak’s empty-net goal, marking his first career point.

The Rush continue their annual “Stock Show Road Trip”, with a matchup against the Kansas City Mavericks for the first time in two seasons on Friday, January 26th. Puck drop at Silverstein Eye Centers Arena is scheduled for 6:05 p.m. MST.

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