(TULSA, Okla.) – Calder Brooks scored twice, Daniil Chechelev made 38 saves and Simon Lavigne buried the game-winning goal as the Rush beat the Tulsa Oilers in overtime 4-3 Sunday afternoon at the BOK Center. Rapid City has now won back-to-back games, three of its past four and four of its last six contests.
With the Rush leading 3-1 after two periods, the Oilers struck twice early in the third. First, Jimmy Soper fired a shot that Chechelev blocked put the puck trickled through the crease and toward the goal line. Jackson Leef charged the net and poked the puck across to make it 3-2.
Later, Eddie Matsushima grabbed a puck in the attacking end and sent a backhanded shot on net. Chechelev got a piece of it with his glove but the puck bounced over the goal line and in, tying the score at three.
The Rush and Oilers would manage nothing further in the third period and the game moved to overtime, still tied at three. In OT, Rory Kerins hit Matt Marcinew with space at the right circle for a shot that Colten Ellis stopped and lunged to poke away from his crease. Kerins attempted to wrap it around from below the goal line but the puck was again stopped and sat loose behind the net. Marcinew then picked it up and fed Lavigne loose in the high slot for a one-timer that he hammered past Ellis for the game-winning goal.
Rapid City took its lead on two first period goals from Brooks, one a wrister that went five hole and another a tap-in on the power play off a feed from Kerins. Alex Aleardi then extended the Rush lead to 3-0 with a wrist shot low past Ellis’s glove in the second. Dylan Sadowy buried a one-timer on the power play late in the second period for Tulsa’s first goal.
Brooks now has four goals in the past two games, Chechelev matched a season-high with 38 saves and Marcinew had two assists. The Rush improved their record to 6-7-0-0 while Tulsa moved to 3-5-3-0.
Rapid City will now return home for three games next week against the Kansas City Mavericks. It begins on Wednesday night and puck drop at The Monument Ice Arena is scheduled for 7:05 p.m.
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