(BOISE, ID) – Daniel Barczuk, Michael Young, and Scott Brannon sparked a three-goal comeback that resulted in Jonathan Narbonne’s overtime game-winner as the Rapid City Rush, proud ECHL affiliate of the NHL’s Arizona Coyotes, defeated the Idaho Steelheads for their first win of the season by a 5-4 score at CenturyLink Arena on Saturday night.
Two nights in a row it was the Steelheads that lit the lamp in what turned out to be an offensively potent first frame for the hoem side. Taylor Peters tucked in the first goal of the contest on a crazy bounce off the back glass on a high shot by Steelheads teammate Emil Molin. Despite the best efforts of Rush netminder Danny Battochio, the Steelheads capitalized on the bounce and put themselves up 1-0 with 2:31 gone by in the first. Roughly three and a half minutes later, Jefferson Dahl added his second of the weekend for the Steelheads at 6:01 of the first on assists from Andre Bouvette-Morisette and Joe Basaraba to double the Steelheads advantage to 2-0. The Boys from the Black Hills brought themselves within in one at the midway point of the frame, cutting their deficit in half. Rush forward Scott Brannon followed a rebound and ripped the puck on a sharp angle from the near wall past Idaho goaltender Philippe Desrosiers to cut the Steelheads lead to 2-1 with 9:33 remaining in the first. Cole Martin re-established the Steelheads multi-goal lead at 3-1, finishing another Bouvette-Morissette pass with less than eight minutes to play in the first. Lastly, the captain Carson McMillan added his first of the year with 2:16 left on an east-west pass from Colton Beck to build a 4-1 lead for the Steelheads after one.
It looked like the Steelheads would run away with the game, but with two periods to go, the Rush bore down and slowly chipped into the Steelheads lead. With 3:42 left in the second, Rush defenseman Brett Kostolansky walked the puck into the near wall of the Idaho zone. Instead of shooting through traffic, he located a wide-open Daniel Barczuk on the back door who blasted a one-timer behind Desrosiers to cut the deficit in half again, making it a 4-2 game heading into the third.
The Rush turned what was a sour score into an exciting final 10 minutes, starting with a rocket from defenseman Michael Young. With 7:56 left in the game, Rush captain Winston Day Chief set Young up for a shot from the blue line, which whizzed past all of the traffic in front of Desrosiers and behind him to bring the Rush within striking distance on the Steelheads with a 4-3 score. Then, with Danny Battochio pulled from the Rush net for an extra attacker, James Melindy sent a bomb of a one-timer towards Desrosiers’ net from the far wall of the Idaho zone. His laser was deflected by Scott Brannon and into the net with just 0.1 seconds left, tying the game at 4-4 and forcing the first three-on-three overtime in Rush history.
With 2:59 left in overtime, Jonathan Narbonne and Michael Young were set up on a 2-on-0 break by Rush forward Kale Kerbashian. Young deferred to Narbonne who tapped the puck behind Desrosiers to complete the comeback with a 5-4 win.
Danny Battochio earned the win, stopping 25 of 29 shots in 60:45 of work (1-0-0). Both teams were a combined 0/6 on the power play.
The Rush return home to play the Colorado Eagles in their home-opener on Friday, October 23rd, at Premier Home Mortgage Ice in Rushmore Plaza Civic Center, with puck drop slated for 7:05 p.m. MST.
