The opening night of ECHL hockey is in the books, with the Rapid City Rush and Florida Everblades earning the first wins of the young season.
After a long summer break, the ECHL is back!
Two games were the centerpiece of the opening day festivities ahead of a busy weekend across the league.
In a clash between mountain division rivals, the Rapid City Rush defeated the Iowa Heartlanders on Thursday night, 4-2 in Coralville.
Jimmy Soper opened the scoring just 3:24 into the game with his first of the season from Zack Hoffman and Brett Gravelle. 58 seconds later Alex Aleardi scored to make it 2-0 off a cross-ice feed from Maurizio Colella.
While the Rush dominated in shots in the first period 18-7, Iowa drew blood midway through the frame when Nick Campoli found Jesse Jacques for his first of two goals in the contest.
Rapid City earned the two-goal lead back when Blake Bennett collected a rebound and roofed it over Hunter Jones to make it 3-1 at the end of the period.
Jones would duel Matt Radomsky, making his first pro start, and the Winnipeg native was equal to the challenge. A stalling Rush offense managed only eight shots in the final two periods while Radomsky stopped 28 of the 29 he faced in the last 40 minutes.
A late-second-period powerplay saw Jacques score his second of the night with just 42 seconds left in the second period, setting up a thrilling third.
With the Rush offense depleted, Rapid City took back-to-back penalties in the final 10 minutes, giving Iowa a golden chance to tie, but the Heartlanders couldn’t convert. Iowa finished the night 1-for-5 on the powerplay.
Mark Duarte would add the insurance marker for the Rush when Alex Aleardi capped off his three-point performance with a cross-ice pass through the slot.
Elsewhere, the back-to-back Kelly Cup-winning Florida Everblades took down the Orlando Solar Bears in the seventh round of the shootout for a 4-3 victory.
Mark Senden wired one by Colten Ellis at 4:51 of the 1st period to give the Blades a 1-0 lead, but the Solar Bears would pull ahead with two straight goals by Jaydon Dureau and Steve Jandric.
A Luke Boka marker at 13:46 of the second would put Orlando up by two before Bobo Carpenter cut the deficit with a goal at 14:41 of the 2nd.
At 12:24 of the 3rd period, Everblades' Kamerin Nault tied the game off of assists from Andrew Fyten and Logan Lambdin.
The shootout would edge on to the seventh round before Mark Senden, who opened the scoring in the 1st period, netted the game-winning goal.
