BOISE, IDAHO – Tyler Coulter and Cedric Montminy struck 41 seconds apart in the first period, but Brett Supinski scored twice to tie the game and force a shootout, where he won it for the Idaho Steelheads by a final score of 3-2 on Friday night. The shootout loss gives the Rush another point in the standings, and puts their magic number at 29 to clinch a Mountain Division playoff spot with 18 games remaining.
The Rush struck twice in the span of 41 seconds early in the contest, but were answered by a Steelheads goal in the last 30 seconds of the period to make a 2-1 Rush lead after 20 minutes. Tyler Coulter began the scoring entries for a second game in a row when he took a Stephane Legault pass from the far wall of the Rush zone in the high slot area of the Steelheads zone. Coulter fired a laser over the shoulder of Steelheads goalie Tomas Sholl, giving the Rush an early 1-0 lead at 4:01 of the first (Legault and Keeghan Howdeshell assisted). Exactly 41 seconds later, Dante Salituro led a break into the Steelheads zone, but his initial shot was denied by Sholl. Quenneville batted the puck down for an attempt but was denied, then was followed up by Ryker Killins for a shot off of the blue line in the slot. After that denial, Quenneville slid the puck to Cedric Montminy, who finished with a backdoor tap to make it a 2-0 Rush lead at 4:42 (Quenneville and Killins assisted). The Steelheads counter-punched in the final minute of the first period to halve the Rush advantage. With 23.1 seconds remaining, Steelheads Captain A.J. White dropped the puck to Brett Supinski in the near faceoff circle of the Rush zone. Supinski fired a shot off of the post and past Rush net-minder Gordon Defiel to cut the Rush lead to 2-1 (White and Colton Saucerman assisted).
Supinski struck again for the Steelheads and knotted the game up on Idaho’s first power play of the game in the second period. With 8:54 gone by in the second, Supinski burned by the Rush defense and maneuvered fore-hand-back-hand with a shot over the shoulder of Defiel to square the game at 2-2 (the goal was unassisted). Both teams couldn’t muster a go-ahead goal through the end of regulation and overtime, and went to a shootout for the second time head-to-head this year.
Brett Supinski provided the game-winner in the top of the second round of the shootout to give the Steelheads the second point and the win, 3-2 the final score.
Gordon Defiel stopped 45 of 47 shots in regulation plus overtime, as well as 2 of 3 shooters in the shootout round, suffering the shootout loss (3-2-2-1 with the Rush, 3-4-2-1 overall).
The Rush conclude their four-game road trip this week in a rematch against the Idaho Steelheads tomorrow night, February 22nd. Puck drop is slated for 7:10 p.m. MDT at CenturyLink Arena.
