MOLINE, Ill. – The Rapid City Rush bounced back from a 5-1 loss Wednesday night to beat the Quad City Mallards 3-1 on the fine goaltending of Wayne Savage, who made 24-saves, and a power play goal to open the scoring. The Rush have tied the series at 2-2 heading into Saturday night’s game four at Quad City.
For the second game in a row the Rush opened scoring; this time it was on a power play goal by Anthony Perdicaro at 7:37 of the first period after the Mallards’ Jeff Lee was assessed a minor for kneeing. To cap off the first period scoring, the Rapid City’s Bobby Preece forced a turnover in the neutral zone and passed to Eric Giosa to make the score 2-0 at 16:27.
The Mallards’ Thomas Frazee hit from the far face-off circle after a centering pass from Vladamir Nikiforov to cut the lead in half at 9:11 of the second. Tempers also flared in the middle frame as Rapid City’s Scott Wray and the Quad City’s Mike Monfedo were each assessed fighting majors after a brawl in front of the benches.
The third period’s only score came in the form of an insurance goal by the Rush’s Jared Brown at 7:06. At 20:00 of the third the Perdicaro and the Matt Boyd were each assessed fighting majors in a post-game brawl between all 10 men on the ice. These two teams have been no strangers to penalty minutes in this series. 20-penalty minutes were handed out during the post-game fracas.
After all was said and done, the two teams combined for 54-penalty minutes.
The Quad City Mallards must now travel back to Rapid City and if they are to win this series they must do it on the road. The Mallards and Rush next play Saturday, April 12 at 7:05 pm at the i Wireless Center.
Photos courtesy of Rich Guill (Sean Flynn Photography)