RAPID CITY, S.D. – The Rapid City Rush, proud affiliate of the NHL’s Calgary Flames, dropped a game to the Tulsa Oilers 5-2 at The Monument on Saturday night.
Rapid City scored to open the game with Mark Duarte burying a feed from Blake Bennett to tally his fifth goal of the season. The rookie forward had previously only scored on the road. The lead was short-lived as Tyler Poulson scored 1:34 later to make it 1-1 at the end of the first.
The Rush regained the lead in the second period on Bennett’s seventh goal of the season, but again lost it in less than three minutes when Kyle Crnkovic hit Dante Sheriff for the game-tying goal.
Kishaun Gervais would add another goal late in the second to send Tulsa ahead for good. Eddie Matsushima scored his second goal in as many games just 22 seconds into the third period and the Rush were unable to beat Tomas Suchanek again. After an empty-netter from Crnkovic, Tulsa scored five for the second-straight night and defeated the Rush for the third consecutive outing.
The Rush failed to score on the powerplay for the eighth straight game and are now 0-for-19 since the last powerplay goal was scored. Rapid City falls to 0-4-1 at home to begin the year after winning a franchise-record 20 games last season.
Rapid City will head to Wichita for a three-game set with the Thunder before returning home on Wednesday, November 22.
