(RAPID CITY, SD) – Daniel Barczuk and Spencer Pommells provided the Rapid City Rush with a 2-0 lead, but the Fort Wayne Komets slowly came back and eventually overtook their opposition in overtime by a 3-2 score on Saturday night.
Daniel Barczuk opened the scoring entries two nights in a row, and in doing so, put his Rush club on top. With 11:30 gone by in the game, Benjamin Dieude-Fauvel forced a turnover in neutral ice and carried the puck in close range to the Fort Wayne net. Instead of shooting, he passed in the low slot and the puck deflected to Barczuk, who while falling, sent the puck by a sprawled out Komets goaltender, Spencer Martin, to give the Rush a 1-0 lead (Dieude-Fauvel and Ryan Misiak garnered the assists). Spencer Pommells doubled his club’s lead to 2-0 on the first power play of the game for the Rush with 3:24 left in the first. Pommells carried the puck in on the near half-wall and sent it down to his captain, Winston Day Chief. Day Chief touched the puck back to Pommells, who sniped over the shoulder of Martin to increase the Rush lead (Day Chief and Danick Gauthier notched the helpers).
That would end scoring for the Rush in regulation, and slowly but surely, the Komets would come back in the game. Halving the deficit was Trevor Cheek, who took a Shayne Szydlowski drop pass over the Rush blue line and sent a wrist shot by Rush net-minder, Sam Marotta, to put the Komets on the board at 2-1 with 9:32 left in the second (Szydlowski and Paul Crowder earned the assists).
Fort Wayne would tie the game on the unluckiest bounce imaginable with just under 10 minutes remaining in the game. Will Weber of the Komets defense routinely rimmed the puck into the Rush zone from the near wall. Marotta left his crease to play it behind his net in standard fashion, but the puck caromed off a stantion and into the lone slot, leaving an oncoming Leo Thomas to pot an empty-net goal, evening things at 2-2 and forcing overtime (Weber earned the lone assist).
Jordan Southorn ended the game in the three-on-three free hockey session as he went on a two-on-one with Szydlowski. Instead of going for the one-timer, Southorn fired a wrister by Marotta, claiming the second point for the Komets with a 3-2 win (Brett Perlini earned the lone assist).
Sam Marotta stopped 29 of 32 shots in 62:31 of action in the overtime defeat (4-10-2 overall).
The Rush conclude their three-game-in-three-night home series with their final regular season meeting with the defending Kelly Cup Champions, the Allen Americans, tomorrow afternoon. Puck drop is slated for 4:05 p.m. MST.
