(EVANSVILLE, IN) – The Rapid City Rush scored twice in the first three minutes of the second period, but the Evansville IceMen, powered by two goals from Nathan Moon and 35 stops from Cody Reichard countered back and defeated the Rush by a 4-2 score on Wednesday night.
After both teams skated through a scoreless first frame, offense became the story of the second period, with five goals total coming in the frame, and the first four of those five coming in the first 8 minutes. Just 1:25 into the period, Tyler Scofield, making his Rush debut, fired a shot by Evansville goaltender Cody Reichard off of an area pass from Danick Gauthier from behind the net to put his new club up 1-0 with the first score of the game (Gauthier and Mikhail Stefanovich notched the assists). Exactly 1:24 later, Daniel Barczuk received a neutral zone pass from Destry Straight and burned his oncoming attacker, finishing with a shot by Recihard to quickly double the lead to 2-0 (Straight and Brian O’Rourke recorded the assists). Evansville fired back, however, on a deflected goal from Nathan Moon. Moon deflected a shot from Alex Wideman that trickled just by Rush net-minder, Danny Battochio, that cut the IceMen deficit to 2-1 with 15:20 left in the period (Wideman and Jordan Sims received the assists). Moments later, Moon added a second as he wrapped around Battochio’s net and just snuck the puck by him, evening the score with 11:57 left in the second (Vincent Dunn recorded an assist, with Jordan Sims earning his second of the night). The IceMen capped off their middle act rally with a third strike, this time from Alex Guptill, as he sprinted on a partial break and beat Battochio up high to give Evansville a 3-2 advantage with 6:55 left in the second (Spencer Humphries and Curtis Leonard, the latter making his debut with the IceMen, notched the helpers).
Controversy filled the third period when the Rush took to the man-advantage for one of their four times in the frame, with a goal being waved off. Taylor Doherty, off of his blue line, came down towards Reichard’s net and seemingly knocked the puck behind the former Hobey Baker Award finalist. The original signal on the ice was a goal, which would have brought the game even at 3-3 with 9:04 left in the game. Despite no video replay and minimal discussion, the head referee of the contest went back on the original call and waved off the goal. The Rush were unable to capitalize on the remainder of that power play and the ensuing five-on-three advantage they were awarded, which ultimately set up Daultan Levielle for his 16th tally of the season. Alex Wideman threw the puck into an open area in front of the net that went off of Leveille’s stick and by Battochio, giving the IceMen a 4-2 lead with 3:44 left in the game (Wideman earned his second assist of the game, while Tyson Fawcett added his first). Despite 19 shots in the final period, the Rush couldn’t even things up, and fell in the first game of their 4-game road trip through 3 different cities over 5 days.
Danny Battochio made 26 saves on 30 shots faced, falling to 11-8-2 on the season.
The Rush now head to Indianapolis to take on the Indy Fuel for the first time in franchise history on Friday, January 15th. Puck drop at the Indiana Farmers Colliseum is slated for 5:35 p.m. MST.
