BOISE, Idaho—Connor Murphy played his heart out, but was met with unfortunate luck as the Rapid City Rush (13-14-2) fell to the Idaho Steelheads (19-8-3), 3-1, at Idaho Central Arena on Friday.
Both sides played an evenly-matched game throughout. Idaho broke the ice when Rapid City passed the puck directly in front of the net to the Steelheads’ Liam Malmquist, who buried late in the first period. Idaho doubled the lead with about five minutes remaining off a deflected puck from a Rush stick. Ryan Chyzowski broke the shutout in the final 47 seconds, but Idaho found the empty net to skate away victorious.
Physicality was the name of the game over the first two periods, and tensions boiled over after the second-period buzzer. A total of eleven penalties were assessed. Blake Bennett and Jade Miller engaged in a fight, and both received game misconducts for fighting after the period’s conclusion.
Neither team’s power play scored on five combined chances. The side scoring first improved to 7-0 in the head-to-head series.
Murphy made 37 saves on 39 shots, and could not be faulted for either of the goals against. Jake Barczewski stopped 35 and continued to haunt the Rush, moving to 3-0 against Rapid City this season with only three goals allowed.
The Rush look to split the series in Boise on Saturday night. It will be the final regular-season meeting between the two familiar foes.
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