ALLEN, Texas – The Allen Americans defeated the Rapid City Rush by a score of 4-2 Tuesday night to win their ECHL Central Division Finals series by the same count, 4-2 and advance to the Conference Finals for the third straight year.
Americans captain Jamie Schaafsma got his team going with the opening goal at 2:43, assisted by Justin Baker and Chad Costello as Allen pressed hard in the Rush zone. Rapid City weathered the storm and came back with a pair of power play goals, including a 5-on-3, to take a 2-1 lead into the first intermission.
Cody  Ferriero lit the lamp during the two-man advantage with assists from Mathieu Brisebois and Kale Kerbashian at the midway point of the frame. Rapid City’s second power play marker came off the stick of Daniel Tetrault as Brisebois and Kerbashian teamed up again, this time with the assists. Allen held a slight shot advantage at the end of the period by a 10-8 count.
Allen got the evener at 6:29 of the middle frame when Greger Hanson fired a shot over the blocker side of Danny Battochio off passes from Ian Schultz and Costello. Hanson’s was the lone goal of the frame as Allen dominated the shot count 16-3, more than doubling the Rush through two periods of play at 26-11.
Nearing the midpoint of a tightly played third period, Allen regained the lead when Konrad Abeltshauser made a spectacular play to deke Battochio completely out of position before he hit Chris Crane with a quick feed that Crane slammed into the empty net. The second assist was credited to Schaafsma, his second point of the game, but not his last. Schaafsma then added some insurance with his goal late in the period at 15:45 with Crane and Abeltshauser chipping in the assists. Rapid City outshot Allen in the period 10-4 to narrow the overall shot margin for the game at 30-21.
The three stars of the game were 1. Chris Crane, 2. Jamie Schaafsma and 3. Riley Gill.
Now it’s on the Western Conference Finals for the Americans as they will take on the Ontario Reign. The series begins in Allen on Sunday with a 4:05pm CDT puck drop.
Contact the writer: maurice.fitzgerald@prohockeynews.com
Contact the photographer: Kimberly.Sauer@prohockeynews.com
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