Rory Kerins will be able to celebrate Wednesday night’s monumental victory with a beer, if he so chooses.
The young Ontario product gifted himself a 21st birthday present by scoring a go-ahead goal midway through the third period of the Rapid City Rush’s first of three battles with the league-best Idaho Steelheads in the final week of the ECHL regular season.
He’s not ready to hit the town just yet.
“Probably not tonight,” Kerins said chuckling. “We’ve got a couple games this weekend, but it’ll be nice to finally go out with the boys and drink a beer.”
His marker ended up serving as the game-winning goal as the Rush held on to beat the Steelheads, denying their division foe a record-setting 57th victory, 2-1 at The Monument Ice Arena.
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“There’s zero margin for error, and we have to win the next game, and that’s all it has been for the last little bit,” head coach Scott Burt said. “I give my guys credit for battling and the will they put forth tonight. To beat Idaho, who’s the best team and going for a record, it’s good for our confidence, but that’s just one game out of three that we need.”
The Rush received next to no help in the standings, other than moving from sixth to fifth place by owning the tiebreaker over the Wichita Thunder. The two squads, as well as the Utah Grizzlies, now have 70 points, but the Grizzlies own tiebreakers over both and still sit in the fourth and final playoff spot. The Kansas City Mavericks remain in third with 72 points, while the Allen Americans, who have already clinched a playoff spot, are second with 75 points. The Steelheads own the best record in the league and have the No. 1 spot locked up.
All six teams have two games remaining.
“In all honesty, I can’t look at that. We just have to win out and see what happens,” Burt said. “For us, it’s just showing up on Friday and trying to do the best we can to get two points.”
The ECHL Mountain Division standings after Wednesday's games.
Zach Court, playing in his 100th ECHL game, potted the first goal of the night for the Rush, breaking a scoreless tie early in the game, while Matt Marcinew, Jon Martin, Colton Leiter and Carter Robertson dished out assists.
Burt gave veteran Adam Carlson, coming off a 35-save victory in the team’s last game, the start in net again and the 29-year-old didn’t disappoint, making 29 saves. The Rush’s penalty kill unit, ranked dead last in the league, backed him up by dousing four power-play chances from the Steelheads, who rank fifth.
“It means a lot, coming into the final stretch of the regular season, Burtie giving me the nod after what I went through last year and the hiccup that was the start of the season for myself,” Carlson said. “It means a ton that I’ve got Burtie’s confidence and the team’s.”
It was difficult for the Rush to jump on the Steelheads early, something team-leader Marcinew said would be crucial Wednesday night, when a lack of sufficient medical staff forced puck drop to be delayed nearly 15 minutes.
But less than three minutes after adequate personnel arrived and the game got underway, Court found the back of the net when he kept the puck on a developing 2-on-1 and buried a short-side goal past Steelheads goalie Adam Scheel just 2:45 into the contest.
“I think that delay helped us, honestly,” Kerins said. “I don’t think Idaho was sharp to start the game, so we took advantage of that and snowballed it for the rest of our game.”
Rapid City, which is now 18-4-2 when leading after the first period, surrendered Idaho’s lone goal when Wade Murphy rocketed a one-timer from the left-wing past a leaping Carlson to level the game 1-1 at 7:10 of the middle frame.
Kerins potted his go-ahead marker, the eventual game-winner, at 9:30 of the third period when he snapped a shot past Scheel from the left circle.
“He kept on looking at me like he wanted to go. I heard he wasn’t feeling good between the periods, but he stepped up when we needed him,” Burt said. “Big-time players do that.”
From there, the Rush fended off and quelled the Steelheads’ 6-5 attack after they pulled Scheel with less than two minutes to play.
“The guys in front, I mean they were eating pucks left and right,” Carlson said. “Early in the season we had a tough time getting in front of pucks, but now everyone’s bought in. Everyone’s eating pucks, everyone’s doing their job, and they made my job easy.”
Rapid City will face Idaho again on Friday for its penultimate regular season game.
“They’re the best team for a reason,” Burt said of Idaho. “They’re all well-rounded, and we’ve just got to do the best we can to fight and stay alive.”
