RAPID CITY, S.D. – Les Lancaster struck twice and added an assist, and with help from a 2/5 power play and Frank Marotte’s 27 saves on 28 shots paced the Allen Americans to a 4-1 win on Saturday night. The loss marks four straight for the Rush dating back to last Saturday against Indy.
Lancaster’s big night started less than two minutes into the opening frame. At 1:58, Lancaster bolted off the bench, came in off the blue line, and launched a cannon of a shot past Rush net-minder Brad Barone, giving Allen a 1-0 lead right out of the gate (Corey Mackin had the lone assist).
In similar fashion to Lancaster, Sam Ruopp doubled the advantage less than two minutes into the second on Allen’s first power play of the game. At 1:55, Ruopp fired a shot from inside the blue line that was blocked. However, he picked up his rebound and rifled it through traffic and past Barone to increase the Allen lead to 2-0 (Lancaster and Steven Owre assisted).
Looking to provide a spark, Rush Captain Mikael Tam kept with the theme of scoring in the period’s opening moments to get the Rush on the board. Just 27 seconds into the final period, Tam collected a Tyson Empey drop pass, wound up a uncorked a shot that froze Allen goalie Frank Marotte, cutting the deficit to 2-1 (Empey and Eric Israel assisted). Moments later, however, Allen’s power play went back to work, and Lancaster potted his second on a Spencer Asuchak rebound to re-establish the multi-goal lead at 3-1 with 3:28 played in the third (Asuchak and Chad Butcher assisted). On a play that appeared to be offside but wasn’t whistled down, Zane Franklin threw the puck from the neutral zone to Dyson Stevenson, who pocketed a rebound in close range after his first attempt was denied by Barone to bring the game to its final score of 4-1 with 10:31 left in the game (Franklin and Josh Lammon assisted).
Brad Barone stopped 19 of 23 shots on net, suffering the loss (4-2-0-0 with the Rush, 9-4-1-1 total).
The Rush conclude the home portion of the 2020-21 ECHL season Sunday afternoon in their series finale against the Allen Americans. Puck drop is slated for 4:05 p.m. MDT at Rushmore Plaza Civic Center Ice Arena.
