Allen provides Rush with early litmus test

by Jim Holland
Rapid City Journal

The last time the Rapid City Rush and Allen Americans skated at the Rushmore Plaza Civic Center Ice Arena, the Central Hockey League President’s Cup championship was at stake.

Far less is on the line when the puck drops tonight for the first of a weekend pair between the defending Cup champion Rush and the Amerks, but the early-season showdown is still important.

“This is going to be a big test for this hockey club,” Rush coach Joe Ferras said. “Colorado, Bossier-Shreveport and the Allen Americans right now are the best teams in the league. That’s the benchmark.”

Americans coach Dwight Mullins agreed.

“The Rush are the defending CHL champions. This will be a good learning experience and a measuring stick for us to be compared with the upper echelon of the Central Hockey League,” Mullins said.

And although it is a new beginning for the Rush and Amerks, Mullins said memories of the last time the teams played here — Rapid City’s 4-3 double-overtime Cup-clincher in Game 6 of the finals on May 4 — won’t be easy to erase.

“I don’t think you can go through what we went through and not have it on your mind a little bit,” Mullins said. “Obviously we weren’t able to accomplish our goal, but at the same time it was great hockey, great for the league and great for both teams.”

Both Rapid City and Allen return many of the players from those finals teams, but both have had a different start to the new season.

The Rush opened with  road wins over Fort Wayne and Dayton but dropped a weekend home-and-home series against the Colorado Eagles.

The Americans rattled off five straight wins to open the campaign, sweeping  cross-town Dallas rival Texas and Bossier-Shreveport. They then downed the Wichita Thunder before suffering their first loss of the season, a 6-3 setback to the Mudbugs on Tuesday night.

Rapid City has surrendered 17 goals while going 1-2 in its last three outings.

Hartinger, Ryan Menei and Derek LeBlanc rallied Rapid City to tie Colorado in Saturday night’s home-opener, but the Rush gave up three late goals to fall 7-4 to the Eagles.

In response, Ferras put the Rush through vigorous workouts this week to shore up the defense and the overall work ethic.

“You start something like losing this early in the season, it gets contagious. We don’t want to be happy with just playing a good hockey game. We want guys battling for jobs on a daily basis,” Ferras said.

Rush captain Scott Wray said the grueling battle drills should pay off.

“It’s all about one-on-one, two-on-two and three-on-three battles. That’s what we did this week,” he said. “We battled for all four days. It’s a tough week, but it’ll be worth it.”

The Amerks are led by several key returnees, including forwards Tobias Whelan, Bruce Graham and Nino Musitelli, who have combined for 11 goals and 11 assists thus far. Colton Yellow Horn, another returnee, has added two goals and four helpers.

Newcomers to watch include forwards Judd Blackwater (4 goals, 3 assists) and Dave Bonk (seven assists).

Anchoring the blue line are the lone returnees from last year’s team, Erik Adams and Brandon Straub. With Straub recently called up to the AHL’s Lake Erie Monsters, Adams is joined by Justin DeCosta and Greg Gallagher.