GAME NOTES: 1/10 vs CINCINNATI

REGULAR SEASON GAME  THIRTY-SIX- 1/10/2020

Rapid City Rush vs Cincinnati Cyclones - 7:05 p.m. MDT

Rushmore Plaza Civic Center Ice Arena

THIS SEASON

Cincinnati: 36gp, 22-8-6-0, 50pts (1st Central)

• Last Game - 1/8 @ Rapid City (4-1 W)

Rush: 35gp, 19-13-3-0, 41pts (4th Mountain)

• Last Game - 1/8 vs Cincinnati (4-1 L)

HEAD TO HEAD - 1 of 5 Games Played

Cincinnati: 1-0-0-0, 2pts

• Power Play: 0% (0/1)
• Penalty Kill: 100% (4/4)
• Leading Scorer(s): Jesse Schultz (1gp, 1g-1ast-2pts)

Rush: 0-1-0-0, 0pts

• Power Play: 0% (0/4)
• Penalty Kill: 100% (1/1)
• Leading Scorer(s): Darian Romanko (1gp, 1 goal)

NOTES

SHORT CIRCUIT: At 7:36 of the first period last night, Rush forward Darian Romanko rifled home his first goal in a Rush uniform, putting the team up 1-0 early. His strike came on the first, and only, Cincinnati power play of the contest, giving the team its fifth shorthanded tally of the season, and second in the last three games. Of the five “shorties” for the Rush, one belongs to Romanko, one to Giovanni Fiore, one to Tyler Coulter, and two to Brennan Saulnier.

“DISCIPLINE IS KEY”:  Expanding upon the above, it’s the pregame key of just about every coach in every level of professional hockey that discipline is key. Wednesday night saw the Rush commit just one penalty in a game for the first time all season, which was successfully killed off and coupled with Darian Romanko’s shorthanded strike in the first period. This year, the Rush have played in six games with two penalty kills or less, and were perfect on said kill in four of them.

ALMOST GOT ME SOME 20’S: Tonight is game #36 of 72 in the regular season, with conventional math dictating that we are officially at the halfway point of the 2019-20 ECHL season. At this point, the Rush are 19-13-3-0 on the season, and fourth in the Mountain Division with 41 points, meaning if the playoffs started today, they’re in. For the remaining 36 games, the Rush will play Mountain Division opponents 32 times: Allen for 4, Idaho for 7, Kansas City for 5, Tulsa for 4, and Wichita and Utah for 6 each. If the Rush win tonight, it will be the third time in team history that they've earned 20 wins by the midway point of the season, the other two being the 2009-10 Championship Season and the 2013-14 CHL Season.