ALLEN, Texas – After falling to the Rapid City Rush on Friday night in game one of the ECHL Central Division Finals, the Allen Americans bounced back with a vengeance and evened the series with a lopsided 8-1 win on Saturday night. It’s taken awhile, but the Americans power play finally got on track, scoring five times on nine power play opportunities in the affair.
The Americans came out flying, determined to dictate the flow of the game from the outset and it paid dividends early on when Ian Schultz got his first of the night at 8:08, assisted by Tyler Ludwig and Greger Hanson. Allen extended their lead to 2-0 when Konrad Abeltshauser fired a shot past Danny Battochio, assisted by Chad Costello and Ian Schultz at 14:45 on the power play.
Rapid City were the recipients of three 5-on-3 power plays in a row and capitalized on one to cut the Americans lead in half when Mathieu Brisebois put one past Riley Gill thanks to a pair of Daniel’s, Tetrault and Barczuk, at 17:41. The power plays helped Rapid City close the shot gap for the period to four, trailing Allen 15-11.
Allen came out even stronger in the second period, unleashing 25 shots to the Rush’s 7 and lighting the lamp three times with two of those on the power play. Chad Costello got the first power play marker at 2:33 with assists from Greger Hanson and Tyler Ludwig. Then it was Vincent Arseneau from Hanson and Spencer Asuchak at 6:02, bookended by Asuchak scoring on the power play at 19:58as Chris Crane and Chad Costello chipped in the assists. The Allen pressure never relented, allowing the Americans to compile an impressive shot count lead after two periods of play at 40-18.
The Americans struck even earlier in the third frame when Hanson notched his first of two power play goals at 2:23 with Schultz and Ludwig again contributing with assists. A little over two minutes later Schultz scored his second of the game unassisted and then Hanson capped the scoring for Allen late in the game at 19:10 as Abeltshauser and Ludwig had the assists at 19:10. Allen held a dominating shot count total of 54-23 at the end of regulation.
With the series even at one apiece, the teams will head to South Dakota where they will meet again on Thursday night at the Rushmore Civic Plaza, the puck drop is scheduled for 7:35PM MST.
Contact the writer: maurice.fitzgerald@prohockeynews.com
Contact the photographer: Kimberly.Sauer@prohockeynews.com
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