RAPID CITY, SD – The Idaho Steelheads (10-7-2-0) fell to the Rapid City Rush (7-8-2-0) 6-2 Friday night at The Monument in Rapid City. The teams will finish their three-game set on Saturday at 7:05 p.m. MST.
Rapid City broke the ice 3:28 into the game when Parker Bowman collected a loose puck in the slot and beat goaltender Ben Kraws to give the Rush a 1-0 lead. Shortly after, following an expired power play for Idaho, Francesco Arcuri handled a tipped puck by Angus MacDonell to score at the side of the crease at 6:15 and even the game 1-1. Two minutes later, however, Rapid City retook the lead with a power play tally from Brett Davis for his second goal of the season.
The pendulum continued to swing in the latter stages of the first period as Brendan Hoffman scored at 4-on-4 for Idaho from the left-wing circle to bring the Steelheads back level with the Rush 13 minutes into the frame. Rapid City got the last laugh of the opening period, though, with Bobby Russell capitalizing again for the Rush on the power play with just over two minutes remaining in the period to put Rapid City ahead 3-2 heading into the intermission.
In the middle frame, Rapid City extended their lead further. First, it was Étienne Morin scoring his first ECHL goal at 2:52 to give the Rush an insurance marker. Then later in the frame the Rush scored twice in 1:57, getting goals from Ryan Chyzowski and Ryan Wagner to grow their lead to 6-2.
In the third period Idaho replaced Kraws in net with Jake Barczewski, but the change wasn’t enough to provide a spark as the Steelheads fell 6-2 when the final horn sounded.
Idaho’s Ben Kraws stopped 20 of 26 shots over the first two periods while Jake Barczewski stopped all four shots he saw in the final frame. Rapid City’s Connor Murphy collected the win, turning away 35 of the 37 Idaho shots he faced.
ICCU THREE STARS
1) Ryan Chyzowski (RC, 1-1-2, +1, 2 shots, 200th pro game)
2) Étienne Morin (RC, 1-1-2, +1, 5 shots, first ECHL goal)
3) Briley Wood (RC, 0-2-2, +1, 1 shot)
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