In the very last meeting between Rapid City and Utah in 2018-19, Joe Cannata once again got the start, Eric Freschi and Will Smith and Joey Raats sat out for new ATO signing Tanner Nagel, and Austin Carroll made his long awaited return to the lineup. Jake Marchment remained sidelined with an injury, as did Grayson Downing as Utah looked to clinch their playoff spot.
First Period
- Carroll gets the second shot of the period on his first shift back!
- Cole Ully gets a two-on-one-ish, but RC breaks it up before it hits the net. Shots are 4-2 for RC about five into the first.
- Considering how grumpy the first period was on Saturday, it’s been surprisingly quiet in the early going.
- A couple of really nice saves from Cannata there on the PK.
- Carroll doing what he does best, creating mayhem and drawing power plays.
- Taylor Richart with a great play to keep the puck in the zone on the PP.
- It hasn’t led to anything yet, but the passing on the power play is looking really good.
- Jack Walker flies in on the back-check to break up a developing one-on-none short-handed. Pretty sure he should be Jack Runner, or Jack Sprinter, or maybe Jack Roadrunner.
- Sooo players collide, and go figure, it’s Carroll causing chaos again. And drawing penalties again.
- There’s a reason I call him Chaos on Skates.
- ULLY SCORES. JK. Ully does not score. Goalie interference called, apparently. Β―\_(γ)_/Β―
- …And to add insult to injury, RC makes it 1-0 short handed.
- Jack Riley picks up his second hooking call of the period mere moments after the Rush returned to full strength.
- THAT ONE COUNTS.
- Richart was ROBBED.
- 1-1 after 20, shots 14-13 for Utah.
Second Period
- Really strong offensive zone shift from Carroll and crew about three minutes in.
- Mitch Maxwell with a pair of strong defensive plays there.
- Utah has a nice shift in the offensive zone, so of course, RC scores on the counterattack.
- Good response from Utah though. Unfortunately, Carlson. (Where have we heard THAT one before. π)
- Oh geez. The puck went through Cannata at a really weird angle, hit the post, and then was snagged by a Utah player. Everyone breathe a sigh of relief!
- Please go play in the offensive zone.
- Richart has come really close on several occasions tonight
- OTTER ON THE POWER PLAY. Tie game!
- Carlson loses his mask twice in the span of two shifts!! O.O
- Richart currently leads the team with seven shots.
- Oh, there’s the cantankerousness that was missing from this game.
- We give you one guess to pick who was in the middle of all the mayhem around Carlson.
- If you guessed Carroll, you were right.
- Oh, that was an unfortunately good goal. Cannata had the whole side sealed up, EXCEPT the one spot that Poulsen found.
- 3-2 RC after 40.
Third Period
- Grizz start the third on the power play.
- Ully almost had an absolute beauty, but rang iron.
- THAT EARLY POWER PLAY DID NOT GO THE WAY OF MOST. WALKER TIES THE GAME.
- When Carroll isn’t creating chaos, he’s creating really nice takeaways/scoring chances like that one.
- Oh wow. That was a great shift from Herbert, Gage Ausmus, Michael Economos, Joey Ratelle and Gabriel Verpaelst.
- Utah is piling on the good shifts.
- Well, that’s a new one, the Grizzlies’ net was just taken off and replaced!
- Ratelle with a nifty dipsy-doodle to elude the Rush defensemen.
- Watching defenders converge on Carroll is like watching a very strong magnet move through metal objects. He just draws defenders to him, which leads to the aforementioned chaos.
- Uhhhhg power play goal Rush.
- Carlson was WAY out of position, and STILL robbed Ryan Walters.
- That definitely should have been tripping drawn by Walker.
- In order to tie the game up, you’re definitely gonna have to go play on the other end of the ice…
- 1:42 and Utah’s net is empty.
- Herbert rings iron, and Utah draws a power play!!
- Well, it went RIGHT down to the wire, and there was some INCREDIBLE plays from Verpaelst among others, to keep the puck away from the empty net.
- If nothing else, that was a highly entertaining game, and thank goodness, that’s the end of the Rush for this season.
- Rush win 4-3, shots 39-31 for Utah.
Caleb Herbert scored his thirtieth goal of the season, and is in the top five goal scorers, despite having played anywhere between five and ten games less than the players in front of him. His opening power play goal, and the assist on Walker’s tally earned him second star honors, while Turner Ottenbreit was named third star. Richart put up nine shots, and Carroll’s return seemed to bring a jolt of electricity through the entire lineup.
It was definitely an exciting game from start to finish, but the loss was made frustrating by the Ully goal that was waved off for supposed goalie interference in the first period.
“He even admitted he made a mistake on our goal that he waived off, should have had four power play goals. If he counts that goal, they don’t get their short handed goal” Tim Branham said. “Every time we have this guy it’s like that. It is what it is. You gotta battle through it and come out. But when you’re playing against a team that works hard and you have an extremely good goaltender that you’re playing against, this stuff gets magnified, and when the referee is dictating the outcome of the game, it makes it tough.”
After some struggles on the man advantage the Grizzlies scored four power play goals, even if only three of them counted.
“We had a little dry spell there,” Caleb Herbert said, when asked about the improvement. “So we switched a few things around, kind of simplified our end zone set up, got back to the basics like shooting pucks, puck retrievals, things like that. Tonight, pucks started going in. I think earlier in the series we were doing ok, but pucks weren’t going in, Carlson was making some big saves, so we got a couple good bounces tonight, and that obviously helps too.”
“He’s a talented hockey player, that’s for sure.”Branham said when asked about his 30 goal scorer. “He’s got a lot of talent, he does some fun stuff out there. He can shoot the puck, he’s got a great release, he’s really fast when he wants to skate, he’s had a good season.”
He had praise for Carroll’s performance as well. “I thought he had an amazing game, I thought played really well, he controlled the play, cycling in the offensive zone, made some good puck decisions, I thought he was really good tonight.”
While Coach Branham spoke about Carroll’s individual play, Herbert elaborated more on Carroll’s impact on the team as a whole in addition to his play on its own.
“Austin’s a really good player, he brings it every night. You know what you’re gonna get out of him–100% effort. Obviously you saw him in front of the net tonight, stirring things up and being a real physical presence out there. I think we’ve been missing a bit of that with him being out, so it’s obviously great to get him back, and he’s a big piece of the puzzle moving forward, so it’s gonna be good.”
“We’re getting some guys back here from injury, kind of fills out our lineup a little more, we’re a little more solid, we play with a little more grit, we have a little more depth.” Herbert added, “I think heading down the stretch that’s gonna be important for us, having those guys back, and I think we’re gonna turn the corner here heading into playoffs and have some momentum on our end.”
The momentum will have to be built on the road, however, as the Grizzlies head out for the final road trip of the year which will see them hit Allen, Wichita, Allen again, then Tulsa before they return home to close out the season against Idaho.
Goals
- First Period: Herbert (Economos, Walker) (PP)
- Second Period: Ottenbreit (Carroll, Walters) (PP)
- Third Period: Walker (Herbert, Economos) (PP)
UTA: 3/7 (10 PIM)
RC: 1/4 (16 PIM)
Photo courtesy of Action Sports Photography.
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