Knight Monsters End 2025 with Hard-Fought Shootout Loss at Rapid City
ECHL Tahoe Knight Monsters

Knight Monsters End 2025 with Hard-Fought Shootout Loss at Rapid City

Published on December 31, 2025 under ECHL (ECHL)
Tahoe Knight Monsters News Release


STATELINE, NV - The Tahoe Knight Monsters, proud ECHL Affiliate of the NHL's Vegas Golden Knights and the AHL's Henderson Silver Knights, fell in a shootout to the Rapid City Rush on the road in their final game of 2025 by a score of 4-3.

In the first period, Samuel Mayer got Tahoe started with a power play goal to put the Knight Monsters up 1-0. Mayer continues to lead all ECHL defensemen in goals with his eighth.

In the second, Rapid City tied the game in the first four minutes as Rasmus Ekström scored to make it 1-1. Just under a minute later, Devon Paliani continued his hot streak as he scored his 13th goal of the year on a beautiful backhand to give Tahoe the lead again at 2-1. The Rush would not go away quietly, as Bobby Russell scored on the power play to tie the game at 2, and Briley Wood added on to give the Rush a 3-2 lead. However, with just two seconds left in the second period, Trent Swick returned from injury and found the back of the net on the man advantage to tie the game at 3, and give him his 10th goal of the season.

The third period was held scoreless thanks to great goaltending from Tahoe's Jordan Papirny and Rapid City's Connor Murphy. After a hard-fought overtime period, the goaltenders still did not surrender, and the game went into a shootout.

Although Paliani scored in the skills competition, Blake Bennett and Brett Davis lifted Rapid City to a 2-1 shootout advantage and gave the Rush a 4-3 win.

The Knight Monsters return home on Friday, January 2, 2026, to take on the Allen Americans at Tahoe Blue Event Center. Puck drop is at 7:00 pm, with pregame coverage on the Knight Monsters broadcast network beginning at 6:50 pm. Ticket packages for the 2025-26 season are now available. For more information, visit www.knightmonstershockey.com.

Check out the Tahoe Knight Monsters Statistics

Share: Facebook | Twitter/X | LinkedIn | Reddit | Email



ECHL Stories from December 31, 2025


The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

OurSports Central