GAME NOTES: 12/14 vs WHEELING

REGULAR SEASON GAME  TWENTY-SEVEN - 12/14/2019

Rapid City Rush vs Wheeling Nailers - 7:05 p.m. MDT

Rushmore Plaza Civic Center Ice Arena

THIS SEASON

Wheeling: 25gp, 11-10-4-0, 26pts (4th Central)

• Last Game - 12/13 @ Rapid City (3-1 W)

Rush: 26gp, 15-8-3-0, 33pts (2nd Mountain)

• Last Game - 12/13 vs Wheeling (3-1 L)

HEAD TO HEAD - 2 of 3 Games Played

Wheeling: 2-0-0-0

• Power Play: 18.2% (2/11)
• Penalty Kill: 100% (8/8)
• Leading Scorer(s): Nick Saracino (2gp, 2g-2ast-4pts)

Rush: 0-2-0-0

• Power Play: 0% (0/8)
• Penalty Kill: 81.8% (9/11)
• Leading Scorer(s): Chris Leibinger (2gp, 1g-1ast-2pts)

NOTES

MAKING HIS CASE: Rush rookie Tyler Coulter has continued to heat up in this rookie season of his. Last night, he put the Rush on the board at 2:37 of the third period for his 10th goal of the season, and became the fourth fastest rookie in team history to earn 10 goals, accomplishing the task in 25 games.  Coulter is 16 away from the franchise record for most goals scored by a rookie, which was set by Derek LeBlanc with 26 tallies in the inaugural season back in 2008-09.  In the ECHL era of Rush hockey, he’s just 13 off of Dante Salituro’s record of 23 in the 2017-18 season.

DOUBLED UP: The Rush had two incredibly impressive special teams streaks come to an end in last night’s defeat to the Nailers. Regarding the penalty kill, the Rush allowed two power play goals in a game for the first time since the very first home game of the season against the Utah Grizzlies on October 25th. That ended a streak of 19 games in which the Rush allowed either a power play goal or less in a game.

ANOTHER SPECIAL STREAK ENDS: On the flip side of the special teams streaks, the Rush saw the team’s power play percentage drop below 20% for the first time since the second game of the season, ending a streak of 23 games with a 20% or higher power play in the season. At it’s peak, the Rush power play was as high as 33.3%

CLOSE CALLS: Last night’s loss to Wheeling was rare in the sense of margin of defeat. It was just the fourth game out of 26 in which the game, whether a win or a loss, was decided by two goals. The Rush are an even .500 in such games with a 2-2-0-0 record.  To put this in perspective, 17 games have been decided by 1 goal (10-4-3-0), two games have been decided by three goals (1-1-0-0), one game by four and five each (both 1-0-0-0), and one by more than six goals (0-1-0-0).