Rapid City, SD (4/5/16)—Philippe Desrosiers made 36 saves at Rushmore Plaza Civic Center on Tuesday night for his second career shutout, as the Idaho Steelheads (37-23-10) blanked the Rapid City Rush (29-34-7), 2-0 in their final road game of the season to retake sole possession of first place in the West Division.
Desrosiers, who returned to the Steelheads from a recall to AHL Texas in time for the Tuesday game, also earned his first career shutout against the Rush at Rushmore Plaza Civic Center, a 3-0 win on March 12th. The rookie goaltender is now unbeaten in regulation in his last 15 starts (11-0-4), the longest streak of any Steelheads goaltender in the ECHL era.
Of Desrosiers’ 36 saves, 19 came in the third period with the Rush pushing heavily for the tie. Lindsay Sparks, Ryan Walters, and Spencer Pommells combined for 14 shots on the night and some of the Rush’s best chances, but Desrosiers had the answer for each with several strong stops from in close and limited rebounds.
The Steelheads also played one of their stronger defensive games despite the 36 shots against. Corbin Baldwin and Shawn Boutin were instrumental in rebound control and in keeping Walters and Winston Day Chief away from Desrosiers. Andrew Carroll and Carson McMillan were both major contributors on Idaho’s two perfect penalty kills. Carroll and McMillan combined for an empty net goal, McMillan’s 19th tally of the season and eighth of the year against Rapid City, with 56 seconds left in regulation to ice the game.
McMillan was also Idaho’s most dependable face-off man in the game, taking nearly all of Idaho’s third period defensive zone draws and winning almost all of them.
The Steelheads took a 1-0 lead when they converted on their first power play of the night. Just 21 seconds into the man-advantage, with the Steelheads working the puck from the right side of the zone, Emil Molin released a shot that was blocked in the high slot. With the Rush penalty killers pulled to the one side, the puck trickled to the top of the left circle where Kyle Jean was all alone to corral the puck and fire a wrist shot past Danny Battochio’s blocker for his 14th goal of the season at 12:13 of the second period.
The Steelheads finish the season 6-4-2 against Rapid City, and 19-13-4 for the year away from CenturyLink Arena.
The Steelheads return home for their final home stand of the regular season, starting Friday night with their first ever meeting with the Missouri Mavericks. Puck-drop is scheduled for 7:10pm MT, with the game available on ECHLTV and 1350KTIK.
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