RAPID CITY, S.D. – Peter Quenneville and Tyson Empey both hit pay dirt in the final three minutes of regulation, but the Allen Americans were already well on their way to victory by then, defeating the Rapid City Rush by a 5-2 score on Friday night. The loss marks six straight for the Rush dating back to May 22nd against Indy, and five in a row head-to-head against Allen dating all the way back to April 17th.
Scott Conway opened the scoring entries with his first of two on the game just after the midway point of the first. In the midst of a delayed penalty call with 6:20 left, Conway remained in the high slot and buried a Tyler Sheehy pass by Rush net-minder Dave Tendeck, giving the Americans a 1-0 lead (Sheehy and Spencer Asuchak assisted).
The Americans took advantage of some Rush breakdowns early in the second and blitzed to an exponentially increased lead. After the Rush turned the puck over behind the net, Corey Mackin found Terrance Amorosa charging into the zone. Inside the blue line, Amorosa rifled a one-timer past Tendeck to double the Allen lead to 2-0 just 73 seconds into the middle frame (Mackin had the lone assist). Exactly 36 seconds later, Mackin received a pass and found Tendeck down and slow to get up in a vulnerable position. He nonchalantly fired the puck into a virtually empty net to quickly triple the Americans advantage to 3-0 at 1:49 of the period (Amorosa and Chad Butcher assisted). Moments later, following a successful Rush penalty kill, Matt Register launched a “Hail Mary” to Josh Lammon, who got a step on his defender. Lammon finished his close range strike with a backhand to vault the Americans to a 4-0 lead at 5:59 of the second (Register had the lone assist). The goal led to the removal of Tendeck for the remainder of the game, with Brad Barone assuming goaltending duties for the rest of the night. In relief, Barone only allowed one tally, which came minutes after his substitution on Allen’s second power play of the game. At 9:06, Conway struck again with a one-timer on a cross-ice pass from Les Lancaster, bringing Allen’s overwhelming lead to 5-0 (Lancaster and Sheehy assisted).
The Rush found some life late in the third from Peter Quenneville and Tyson Empey, ensuring they didn’t leave empty-handed on the scoreboard. The older Quenneville brother ruined C.J. Motte’s shutout in Allen’s net when Tyler Coulter found him with a wraparound pass that he buried for his team-leading 28th tally, bringing the score to 5-1 Allen with 2:47 left in the game (Coulter and Avery Peterson assisted). Empey buried a Gabriel Chabot pass in the slot with 18.1 seconds remaining to bring the game to its eventual final score of 5-2 (Chabot and Jake Wahlin assisted).
Dave Tendeck suffered the loss, stopping 15 of 19 shots in 25:59 of playing time (11-14-0-0). Brad Barone stopped all but one of 19 shots in 34:01 of relief.
