ECHL Rapid City Rush

Rapid City Rush at Evansville IceMen Game Notes

Published on January 12, 2016 under ECHL (ECHL)
Rapid City Rush News Release


Where We Left Off: All Square - Zach Cohen gave the Rush a spark late in the game with his seventh goal of the season, and Sam Marotta played admirably in goaltending relief, but the Missouri Mavericks scored three first period goals in quick fashion to split the series with the Rapid City Rush, defeating the hosts by a 3-1 score on Saturday night. The Mavericks changed the narrative of this series with three goals in a 4:09 span in the first period. The first strike came at 2:29 of the first: Winston Day Chief finished a 3-on-2 break down the ice, but his shot went wide and took an awkward bounce off of the glass. In stride, Jesse Root of the Mavericks took the puck the other way and saw his pass get deflected by Rocco Carzo and by Rush net-minder, Danny Battochio, giving the visitors a 1-0 lead (Root garnered the only assist). Exactly 34 seconds later, long-time Maverick Andrew Courtney slammed a loose puck in the low slot by Battochio to double his team's lead to 2-0 (Sebastien Sylvestre and Trevor Ludwig). Capping off the scoring rally at 6:38 of the first frame was Scott Wamsganz, who's first goal of the season, like Courtney's tally in an earlier sequence in the game, was made possible by knocking the puck in from point blank range. The goal, assisted by Reed Seckel and Kane Lafranchise, gave the Mavericks a 3-0 lead, and prompted the substitution of Danny Battochio in the Rush net. Sam Marotta, making his second appearance on home-ice, took over the defense of the Rush goal for the remainder of regulation. Zach Cohen gave the Rush some life within the first two minutes of the third period, breaking up the Josh Robinson's bid for a shutout. With 18:01 left in the game, Cohen followed his opportunity on net and hacked a rebound over Robinson's glove that trickled into the net, cutting the Mavericks advantage to 3-1 (Sean Erickson recorded the lone assist). With 3:05 left, Marotta was pulled from the Rush net in favor of an extra-attacker, but the Rush could not capitalize on the plethora of quality chances they created late in the game. Josh Robinson hung on for his fourteenth straight win, now second all-time in ECHL history, staving off a Rush comeback with a 3-1 Mavericks win.

Road Rage - This week, the Rush will see their craziest road trip of the season, as they play four games in five nights in three different cities against the Evansville IceMen (Wed, 5:15 MST), the Indy Fuel (Fri, 5:35 MST), and the Fort Wayne Komets (Sat, 5:30 MST; Sun, 3 MST). For the Rush, it will be the first time since the 2011/12 CHL Season that they will play both Evansville and Fort Wayne. The Rush last played Evansville on March 17, 2012, winning 3-2 on home ice, and last in Evansville on February 4, 2012, winning for a second consecutive night by a 5-2 score. All-time, the Rush have dominated the IceMen, only losing twice in 11 meetings (9-2-0).

You're Killing Me Smalls! - The Rush penalty kill continues their surge, and has maintained its positioning as one of the best in the ECHL. After shutting out the 9th-best power play in the league this weekend, the Rush now boast the 2nd-best PK in all of AA hockey. As low as 69.2% on the morning of Halloween (tied for the worst in the ECHL), the Rush now kill off penalties at a rate of 87.4%: an increase of 18.2% over the course of 26 games. They have killed 6 straight power plays dating back to last Wednesday's win over the Utah Grizzlies (the longest streak of the season is 16, achieved from November 27th against Idaho to December 11th against Quad City). Additionally, the Rush penalty-kill also ranks second among ECHL teams on home ice, just .9% shy of their archrivals, the Colorado Eagles (they clock in at 90% on home ice).

Let's Meet The New Guy - On Sunday afternoon, Rush Head Coach and GM, Joe Ferras, announced that Tyler Scofield had been acquired and added to the active roster. Scofield comes to the Rush with the majority of his seven years as a professional played in Austria, where he was twice the league's postseason goal-scoring leader and was once crowned as a league champion. Last season, he played in 18 games with the ECHL's Ontario Reign, and finished his tenure there just shy of a point-per-game pace, recording 5 goals, 9 assists, and 14 points. Prior to playing professionally, Scofield played in the NCAA at Bemidji State University, and in the BCHL with the Vernon Vipers, Prince George Spruce Kings, and the Alberni Valley Bulldogs.

CRUNCHING NUMBERS:

vs the IceMen - It's been ages since these two teams played together, so let's see what kind of stats and numbers we can compare heading into the first of only two meetings this season:

75.4 - the Evansville penalty kill on home ice. This is just 1.1% percent above the worst in the ECHL. Even though the Rush power play clocks in at 13.6% away from home (tied for 19th three-ways), they have scored power play goals in their last three road contests (4/13=30.8%)

2 - the number of teams representing the West Division that Evansville will have faced after Wednesday night's showdown. Earlier this season, the IceMen took on the Alaska Aces four times, splitting them evenly with both wins coming in Alaska.

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