(INDEPENDENCE, MO) – Matt Caito scored on his team’s only power play of the night, and Kenton Miller provided the eventual game-winner with 10.5 seconds left in the first to give the Rapid City Rush a narrow 2-1 win over the Kansas City Mavericks on Tuesday night. The win gives the Rush the series win against the Mavericks, 2-1-0-0, and starts off their current three-game road trip with a victory.
The Rush provided the only offense of the first period between both squads, starting off with a power play goal from Matt Caito. With 11:19 gone by in the game, Caito took a pass on the point in the Mavericks zone and rifled a wrist shot by Mavericks goalie Mavric Parks, who was screened, to give the Rush a 1-0 lead (Jack Walker and Daniel Leavens assisted). Kenton Miller doubled the Rush advantage within the final seconds of the frame, and it would serve as the eventual game-winner for the Rush. With 10.5 ticks left in the first, Shaquille Merasty, making his Rush debut after being acquired in a trade with the Wichita Thunder this morning, gained entry of the Mavericks third of the ice and fired a shot into Parks. Parks stopped Merasty’s attempt, but surrendered a huge rebound in the slot that came to Miller, who fired a no-doubter by the reigning ECHL Goalie of the Week to give the Rush a 2-0 lead (Merasty and Miller assisted).
Kansas City got within striking distance just shy of the midway point of the second on a fluke sequence of events. With 7:36 gone by in the second, Captain Tyler Elbrecht of the Mavericks crossed the center red line and immediately rifled a shot on Rush net-minder, Adam Vay. The shot only slowed down by Vay: it managed to trickle through his paraphernalia and in, cutting the Rush lead to 2-1 (Troy Donnay was credited with the lone assist).
Both teams exchanged chances in a feverishly paced third period, despite only totaling 9 shots between each other in the final 20 minutes. With less than a minute to go, Parks was summoned to the Mavericks bench for an extra-skater, yet the move didn’t yield a game-tying goal for Kansas City. Vay and company stood tall in the last minute to hang on for a 2-1 win to start the team’s three-game road trip.
Adam Vay stopped all but one shot of 28 faced in the victory (12-13-1).
The Rush now continue their three-game road trip with a pair of games against the Allen Americans. Puck drop on Friday, March 2nd is slated for 6:05 p.m. MST at the Allen Event Center.
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