STATELINE, Nev. – The Tahoe Knight Monsters defeated the Rapid City Rush 6-4 on Saturday to close out the regular season.
In the first period, Rapid City scored the lone goal as captain Ryan Wanger found the back of the net, giving the Rush a 1-0 lead heading into the second period.
In the middle frame, the offenses exploded. Jordan Gustafson opened the scoring with his 9th of the year for Tahoe to tie the game at 1. After Rapid City’s Mitchell Smith put the Rush back ahead 2-1, Tahoe would answer with four straight goals from Kaelan Taylor, Aidan De La Gorgendiere, Connor Marritt, and Kevin Wall to make it 5-2 Knight Monsters. Although Wagner would score his second of the game for the Rush, Tahoe still took a 5-3 lead into the third period.
In the final period of the regular season, Tahoe extended its lead thanks to a crafty goal by Samuel Huo to make it 6-3. After the Rush responded with a power play goal from Brett Davis to make it 6-4, Tahoe goaltender Alex Tracy shut the door on the Rush offense, and Tahoe concluded the regular season with a 6-4 victory against Rapid City.
On Friday, Rapid City beat the Knight Monsters 4-3 after a third period rally that lead to the overtime win. In the first period, Tahoe goaltender Jordan Papirny and Rapid City goaltender Nathan Torchia kept both teams off the scoreboard as the two teams entered the intermission scoreless.
In the second, the Knight Monsters got the offense rolling. Sloan Stanick scored his 22nd goal of the season on an impressive snipe and followed it up with his second of the game on the power play to give Tahoe a 2-0 lead. Captain Luke Adam scored his 20th goal of the season at the end of the period to put Tahoe up a trio of goals headed into the third.
However, in the final frame, Rapid City clawed back. Briley Wood, Cameron Buhl, and Ryan Chyzowski would all find themselves in the goal column as the Rush tied the game at 3, and both teams collected a standings point as the game went into overtime.
In OT, just over two minutes into the extra session, it was Rush captain Ryan Wagner who was the hero, scoring a goal off a back-and-forth passing sequence from Quinn Olson to give Rapid City a 4-3 comeback victory, their 10th win against the Knight Monsters this season.
The Knight Monsters open up round one of the Kelly Cup Playoffs on the road against the Kansas City Mavericks. Game one gets underway on Friday, April 24, with puck drop at 5:05 pm PT. Pregame coverage on the Knight Monsters broadcast network starts at 4:55 pm PT. For more information on upcoming games, visit knightmonstershockey.com.