RAPID CITY - The Indy Fuel visited the Rapid City Rush on Friday for the first of a three-game set. Despite massively outshooting the Rush, the Fuel could not score after the first period and fell to the Rush on Friday night.
1ST PERIOD
The Fuel dominated most of the first period, putting up ten shots on the Rush before they could record one. However, it was Rapid City who scored first after Matt Petgrave took a hooking penalty at 17:15.
Ryan Wagner scored the goal for Rapid City to put them up 1-0 at 17:54. The Fuel answered back quickly though, with a goal by Sahil Panwar less than thirty seconds later. Mike Van Unen, who was traded to Indy from Rapid City in December, had the lone assist on that goal.
At the end of the first period, Indy was outshooting Rapid City, 16-4.
2ND PERIOD
The Fuel went back to the penalty kill again after Owen Robinson took a holding the stick penalty at 13:15. It was killed off.
Rapid City’s Chaz Smedsrud took a hooking call at 16:45, putting Indy back on the power play. The Rush were able to kill it off.
After two frames, the Fuel were outshooting the Rush, 28-12.
3RD PERIOD
At 6:01, Dustin Manz took an interference penalty, putting the Fuel back on the penalty kill. Indy was able to kill it off.
The Fuel headed to the power play next after a tripping penalty was called on Rasmus Ekström at 8:33, but once again it was killed off.
Ryan Chyzowski scored for Rapid City at 11:39 to put the Rush up 2-1 late in the game.
With 2:33 to go, Ekström returned to the box after a hooking call. This put the Fuel on an important, late-game power play. With 36 seconds to go in the game, and 12 seconds in the power play, the Fuel took a timeout.
Goaltender Mitchell Weeks did not return to the net, giving Indy a 6-on-4 advantage. Time expired on the penalty but the Fuel kept the pressure on until Brett Davis was able to poke the puck away and score a late empty-net goal.
This made it 3-1, which would be the final score in favor of Rapid City, despite the Fuel setting a new single-game shot record this season with 47. The Rush recorded 16.
These two teams face off again tomorrow night in the middle game of a three-game set this weekend.
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