The Tahoe Knight Monsters took on the Rapid City Rush on Sunday. Puck drop was at 3:00 PM. The game was at the Tahoe Blue Event Center in Stateline, Nevada. It was the fifty-ninth game of the season. The Tahoe Knight Monsters were coming off of a 7-1 victory to the Rapid City Rush. The Tahoe Knight Monsters had a record of 34-20-4. The Knight Monsters were in 8th place in the ECHL. The Knight Monsters were 4th in the Western Conference and 2nd in the Mountain Division. The Rush had played fifty-six games. The Rush were coming off of a 1-7 loss to the Knight Monsters. The Rush had a record of 23-24-9. The Rush were in 21st place in the ECHL. The Rush were in 10th place in the ECHL Western Conference. The Rush were in 6th place in the ECHL Western Conference Mountain Division. The all-time record between the Tahoe Knight Monsters and the Rapid City Rush was 4-1-0.
The Tahoe Knight Monsters had played two more games. The Knight Monsters had eleven more wins. The Knight Monsters had the better points percentage. The Knight Monsters had scored thirty-nine more goals. The Rapid City Rush had allowed fourteen more goals. The Knight Monsters had the better goal differential. The Knight Monsters had seventeen more points. The Tahoe Knight Monsters had 523 penalty minutes. The Rapid City Rush had 567 penalty minutes.
#30 Jordan Papirny got the start in net for the Tahoe Knight Monsters. It was his twenty-third game played for the Knight Monsters this season. On Saturday, the Tahoe Knight Monsters signed defender Evan Junker. Junker was then placed on reserve. Defender Cade Alami was placed on 14-day injured reserve by the Knight Monsters. #32 Connor Murphy got the start in net for the Rapid City Rush. It was his twenty-first game played this season for the Rush. On Saturday, defender Artyom Borshyov was activated from reserve by the Rush. Defender Charles Martin was placed on reserve by the Rush.
Eleven minutes into the game, Bear Hughes of the Tahoe Knight Monsters received a penalty for tripping. On the penalty kill, the Knight Monsters took the lead. The goal was scored by #21 Sloan Stanick. His goal was unassisted. A bad turn over by the Rush lead to a 1-on-1 with the goalie for Stanick. Stanick was able to find the back of the net.
With under a minute left in the first period, Maurizio Colella of the Rapid City Rush received a penalty for cross-checking. The score was 1-0 Tahoe Knight Monsters after the first period.
Two minutes into the second period, Artur Cholach received a penalty for kneeing. On the penalty kill, the Tahoe Knight Monsters scored. The goal was scored by #13 Simon Pinard. His goal was assisted by #12 Bear Hughes. This goal gave the Knight Monsters a two goal lead.
With under nine minutes left in the second period, the Knight Monsters took a three goal lead. #15 Jake McGrew scored the goal. His goal was assisted by #96 Brennan Kapcheck and #28 Logan Nelson.
With under five minutes left Jake Stevens of the Knight Monsters received a penalty for hooking. Late in the third period, Parker Bowman of the Rush refused to fight Anthony Collins of the Knight Monsters after Bowman was in the face of another Knight Monsters player. The score was 3-0 Tahoe Knight Monsters going into the third period.
Four minutes into the third period, the Rapid City Rush got on the boad. The goal was scored by #20 Holden Wale. His goal was assisted by #68 Billy Constantinou and #21 Braeden Tuck. The Tahoe Knight Monsters still had a two goal lead after this goal.
Thirty seconds later, the Rush scored again. The goal was scored by #45 Luke Mylymok. His goal was assisted by #10 Maurizio Colella and #12 Chase Pauls. This goal brought the lead down to one goal.
Eight minutes into the third period, the Tahoe Knight Monsters retook a two goal lead. The goal was scored by #10 Jett Jones. His goal was assisted by #96 Brenna Kapcheck and #20 Slava Demin.
With eight minutes left in the game, #91 Blake Bennett scored for the Rush. His goal brought the lead back down to just one goal. Bennetts goal was assisted by #9 Trevor Janicke.
With under six minutes left in the game, Luke Mylymok of the Rush received a penalty for slashing. With just under two minutes left in the game, the Rush pulled their goalie for the extra attacker. The Knight Monsters would have multiple chances to score on the empty net but did not. With under a minute left in the game, Bear Hughes of the Knight Monsters had the puck in the offensive zone to the left of the net. Hughes had an open lane to skate towards the net. He decided to take a slap shot from outside of the house along the boards. His shot missed high and wide. The Rush would pick up the puck, go down to the other end and score to tie the game. The tying goal was scored by #68 Billy Constantinou. They tying goal was assisted by #9 Trevor Janicke and #7 Deni Goure.
The score was tied at 4-4 at the end of regulation. The game would go into overtime.
Six seconds into overtime, the Rapid City Rush scored to win the game. The game winning goal was scored by #9 Trevor Janicke. His goal was unassisted.
The final score was 5-4 Rapid City Rush.
The Tahoe Knight Monsters played three solid periods. They had a total collapse in the third period. In overtime they did not challenge the shooter. They just kept backing up. The Knight Monsters did not play shut down hockey at all in the third period. They needed to get pucks deep into the Rapid City Rush end. The Knight Monsters needed to cycle behind the rush net. They did not do that. The Knight Monsters constantly put the puck into the Rush zone in the third period and then had zero forecheck. The Knight Monsters kept letting the Rush set up in their own end. This caused the momentum to shift completely in the third period. The Knight Monsters played a flat game at the end and payed the price for it. There was no reason the Rush should have won this game. The Rush shouldn’t have had the opportunity to tie the game. Bear Hughes of the Knight Monsters should have skated towards the net and taken a wrist shot instead of a slap shot. This was an embarrassing loss after beating the Rush 7-1 the night before. This game was in the Knight Monsters control. It was their game to lose. They fumbled it. This game was a sell out. The Knight Monsters did not get on a winning streak.
The Tahoe Knight Monsters still walked away with five points out of a possible six in this series. The Knight Monsters won a close 5-4 game on Friday. The Knight Monsters blew the Rush out of the water on Saturday with a big 7-1 win. The series concluded with a Rush overtime win on Sunday. I think the difference in this series was the goaltending. When the Rush had Matt Radomsky ini net, the Knight Monsters were able to find the net a lot more. In all three games the Rush failed to protect in front of their net. The big difference was Connor Murphy was better in this series at bailing his team out. The Knight Monsters still did not lose in regulation which is good. However their collapse on Sunday was part of an issue where the Knight Monsters are currently facing where they are not finding long term success in the second half of the season. That does not build a lot of confidence as the season moves towards the playoffs.
The Tahoe Knight Monsters had one more shot. The Rapid City Rush had the better shot percentage The Knight Monsters had two more penalty minutes. #30 Jordan Papirny saved 35 shots for the second night in a row for an 88% save percentage for the Tahoe Knight Monsters. To his credit he did not allow a goal in the first two periods. #32 Connor Murphy saved 37 shots for a 90% save percentage for the Rapid City Rush.
The Tahoe Knight Monsters have a record of 35-20-5 with 73 points in 59 games. The Knight Monsters have now moved down one spot to 9th place in ECHL. They have now moved down one spot to 5th place in the ECHL Western Conference. They have moved down one spot to 3rd place in the ECHL Western Conference Mountain Division. They are in a playoff spot. They are now six points into a playoff spot. That is up one point. They have the third highest points percentage in the division. The Knight Monsters are now eleven points away from the top spot in the ECHL. They closed that gap by one point. The Knight Monsters are still nine points away from the top spot in the ECHL Western Conference.The Knight Monsters are now six points away from the top spot in the ECHL Western Conference Mountain Division. They closed that by one point.
The Tahoe Knight Monsters take on the Idaho Steelheads for game sixty on Friday, March 14th. It will be an away game. Puck drop is scheduled for 6:10 PM. This will be a divisional game. It will be the first of back-to-back games in Idaho at the Idaho Central Arena. The Knight Monsters have thirteen games remaining in the regular season.
Zac Electrifly 
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