(WICHITA, Kan.) The Rapid City Rush jumped out to a two-goal lead through two periods but allowed a pair of goals in the third and ultimately fell to the Wichita Thunder in a shootout, 3-2, Sunday afternoon at INTRUST Bank Arena.
The Rush opened the scoring in the first period on a great individual effort from Brett Gravelle. With a Thunder defenseman draped on his back, Gravelle stickhandled himself free to just inside the right wing circle where he fired a wrist shot that snuck through the short side of Jake Theut to give the Rush a 1-0 lead.
Rapid City added to that advantage in the second while working on a power play. Logan Nelson took a pass above the right circle and lined up a wrist shot that he buried top shelf on Theut’s blocker side, pushing the lead to 2-0.
Wichita got on the board in the third period when Matteo Gennaro and Tim Soderlund gained the zone with a 2-on-1 rush. Gennaro hit Soderlund on the back post for a shot that he squeezed through the short side of Lukas Parik, cutting the Rush lead in half.
The Thunder then tied it up when Jay Dickman grabbed the puck out of the corner and sent it to the front of the net for Peter Crinella. Crinella one-timed it past Parik and the game was tied at two.
It remained tied through the remainder of regulation and in overtime, neither team was able to score the game-winner despite Rapid City heavily out-chancing the Thunder. Wichita got shootout goals from both Crinella and Soderlund while the Rush did not score in their attempts and the Thunder took the extra point with the shootout victory, 3-2.
Nelson and Gravelle each had a goal, Tristan Thompson extended his point streak to seven games and Parik made 24 saves on 26 shots in the shootout loss. Rapid City picked up one point and moved to 6-7-1-2 while Wichita improved to 9-5-1-0 in the win.
Rapid City will now head back to Kansas City to take on the Mavericks on Tuesday night. Puck drop at Cable Dahmer Arena is scheduled for 7:05 PM CST.
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