Red-Hot Rush Keep Rolling With Win In Tulsa

The Rapid City Rush kicked off a two-week, six-game road trip in Tulsa Thursday night with a 3-2 victory over the Oilers at the BOK Center.

Ryan Wagner scored a game-winning third-period goal for the Rush, while goaltender Connor Murphy dazzled with 55 saves.

Murphy’s 55-save performance on 57 shots marks a career-high. He also set the new record for saves in a single game (55) and single period (28 in the second period) for any ECHL goaltender this season.

The Oilers decisively won the shots-on-goal battle 57-31, but couldn’t translate enough of those shots to the scoreboard. The 57 shots were a season-high for the Oilers. Despite the disparity, the Rush never trailed.

Parker Bowman kicked off the scoring with 2:46 remaining in the opening period, jamming a rebound from underneath the nearly-sealed glove of Vyacheslav Buteyets to put the Rush up 1-0. It was the seventh straight game where Tulsa has conceded the opening goal.

Andrew Lucas tied the game with a power-play goal with less than two minutes remaining in the middle frame, walking down from the right point before beating Murphy on the glove side.

Deni Goure jumped on an Oilers mistake 40 seconds later to regain a one-goal lead for the Rush, 2-1.

Ryan Wagner scored the eventual game-winning goal 4:16 into the third period, ripping a snapshot over the shoulder of Buteyets for a 3-1 lead.

Keegan Iverson scored in his Oilers debut, wristing a shot through Murphy’s five hole from the left circle, cutting the score to 3-2 with 11:55 remaining in regulation.

Goure and Wagner finished with a goal and an assist each. Combined with Blake Bennett’s one assist, that line has put up 16 points over the last three games for Rapid City.

Murphy, who flew into Tulsa from Calgary on Wednesday night, improves to 12-7-4 with a .917 save percentage. He is 8-1-1 over his last 10 starts for the Rush and has made 95 saves in his last two games.

Vyacheslav Buteyets took the loss for Tulsa, who has lost a season-high five consecutive games.

In a statistical quirk, Thursday’s victory was the Rush’s first win in the Central Time Zone. Rapid City had gone 0-8-2 in Central Time before this win.

The Rush have now won six of their last eight games. They trail the fourth-place Oilers by nine standings points with eight games remaining.

The two teams have a rare Friday off-day before reconvening at the BOK Center on Saturday night. Puck drop is set for 7:05 Pm.