ALLEN, Tex. – Jake Paterson stopped all 33 shots he saw, and coupled with a pair of points from both Corey Mackin and Les Lancaster powered the Allen Americans to a 4-0 win over the Rapid City Rush on Saturday night. The loss, a seventh straight, ends the season for the Rush at 32-35-3-1 in 71 games. Additionally, with their win over the Rush and a Wichita loss to Kansas City, Allen claimed the Western Conference Regular Season Championship.
In a sequence of déjà vu compared to last night’s weekend series opener, Allen left with a 1-0 lead despite countless quality Rush chances. Corey Mackin started things off for the Americans when he re-directed a Ben Carroll blue line shot on the Rush net. Rush net-minder Brad Barone made the initial save, but Mackin got another crack at it and sent the puck off of a Rush defender’s stick and in, giving Allen at 1-0 lead with 6:59 left in the first (Carroll and Les Lancaster assisted). Jake Paterson in Allen’s net stopped all 13 Rush shots.
Allen began to pull away from the Rush in the second period with another pair of strikes. The first one came from Chad Butcher, who received a fortuitous bounce when Les Lancaster broke his stick trying to shoot from the high slot. The puck rolled right to Butcher and he didn’t hesitate in shooting, beating Barone by his blocker to make it 2-0 at 5:43 of the second period (Lancaster and Corey Mackin assisted). With 56 seconds remaining in the frame, Kris Myllari collected the puck inside the blue line, denying the Rush a chance to exit the zone. Myllari unleashed a shot through traffic that whizzed by Barone, tripling the Allen lead to 3-0 (Scott Conway and Zane Franklin assisted). Paterson remained perfect, stoning another 14 shots in the second.
Kelly Bent provided the only tally in the third period, his first as a professional. With 9:23 gone by, Bent deflected a Terrance Amorosa shot past Barone from point-blank range in front of the net, extending the advantage for Allen to its eventual 4-0 final score (Amorosa and Sam Ruopp assisted). Paterson earned his shutout with an extra six saves in the final 20 minutes, stopping all 33 he saw in regulation.
Brad Barone suffered the loss in the season finale, stopping 23 of 27 shots on net (4-3-0-0 with the Rush, 9-5-1-1 total).
