FISHERS – The Fuel hosted the Rapid City Rush on Friday night for the second of three games against them this week. Owen Flores earned his first professional shutout as the Fuel took the 3-0 victory and series win.
1ST PERIOD
Jesse Tucker opened the scoring at 7:43 with the help of Owen Robinson and Matt Petgrave to put the Fuel up 1-0.
Indy’s Jadon Joseph added to the lead with a goal assisted by Brett Moravec and Connor Joyce at 13:11.
Just like Wednesday night, there were no penalties between these two teams in the first period. After one frame, the Fuel were up 2-0 while outshooting Rapid City, 10-6.
2ND PERIOD
Joyce took the game’s first penalty at 10:57, for hooking. This put Rapid City on the power play.
With forty seconds left in that penalty, Indy’s Will Ennis took a tripping penalty, forcing a significant amount of 5-on-3 play. Rapid City put the pressure on but the Fuel killed off both penalties.
Time expired soon after, with no more goals or penalties in the frame. Through two periods, The Fuel outshot Rapid City, 23-16.
3RD PERIOD
Both teams went back and forth, trading scoring opportunities but both goaltenders stood strong in net.
With just under five minutes to go in regulation, a fight broke out next to the Fuel’s goal. After the penalties were sorted, Indy’s Chris Cameron and Kevin Lombardi were sent to the box for roughing along with Rapid City’s Darian Pilon.
This put the Fuel on a penalty kill again and they successfully killed it off.
With about two minutes to go, Rapid City pulled their goaltender Arsenii Sergeev from net in favor of the extra attacker.
With 1:52 remaining, that turned into a 6-on-4 opportunity for the Rush after Nick Grima was sent to the penalty box for roughing.
Indy took possession and Dustin Manz scored on the empty net at 18:34 to make it 3-0. Christian Berger claimed the lone assist.
Sergeev returned to net for the Rush, but the Fuel killed off the rest of the penalty for the win.
Indy outshot Rapid City, 29-22 to claim the 3-0 win and the first pro shutout for Owen Flores.