(BOISE, ID) – Dan O’Donoghue lit the lamp for the Rush, but the two goals of Colton Beck, three assists of Andre Bouvette-Morisette, and 22 stops of Eric Hartzell were too much as the Idaho Steelheads defeated the Rapid City Rush in their first-ever meeting on Friday night at Century Link Arena.
It took eleven minutes and fifteen seconds, but the Steelheads broke up the perfection on both sides of the scoreboard. In the midst of a scramble in front of the net, which included Rush net-minder Nick Riopel losing his goaltending stick, Steelheads defenseman Cole Martin carried the puck in the high slot and slipped it past Riopel, putting the Steelheads up first by a 1-0 count.
The Steelheads doubled their lead thanks to help from special teams in the second period. On their second power play of the game, Steelheads forward Colton Beck slammed a loose puck by Riopel in a 6-man traffic jam in front of his net. The power play tally made the Steelheads lead 2-0 with 9:25 gone by in the second.
The Rush began the third period with 1:48 of power play time, but it did not benefit the Rush, as Jefferson Dahl tripled the Steelheads lead to 3-0 on a shorthanded break just 33 seconds in to the final act. The home side continued their success in their home-opener, cashing in yet again on the power play at the 4:01 mark of the third. Andrew Carroll completed a tic-tac-toe passing play in front of Riopel’s net and added to the mountain of Idaho’s goals and made the advantage 4-0. Eventually, the Rush would break the wall that was Steelheads goaltender Eric Hartzell, and hit pay-dirt on their sixth power play of the night. With 11:47 left in the game, Dan O’Donoghue scored his first goal in a Rush uniform and slammed home a rebound on a Cody Ferriero shot, putting the Rush on the board with a 4-1 score. Colton Beck added a second goal to his stat column with 6:11 left in the game and deflected a shot behind Riopel, bringing the game to its final score of 5-1.
Nick Riopel received his first loss of the season, stopping 18 of 23 shots (0-1-0). The Rush lost in regulation on opening night for the first time in franchise history, and went 1/9 on the power play, with the lone tally coming from second-year pro Dan O’Donoghue. Both teams each shot 23 shots in the night.
The new West Division rivals will meet in a rematch tomorrow night at 7:10 p.m. MST at Century Link Arena.
