The River Rush played a hard-fought game against the Chase Heat Saturday (Dec. 7) that gave fans at the West Fraser Centre their second shoot out of the season.
The third period ended in a 4-4 tie, bringing the match to overtime. Despite some strong efforts from the home team, the goalie from Chase blocked shots and made saves, bringing the game to a shootout.
In the six-shot shootout, the puck only found the net once as Chase slipped it past River Rush goalie Kyan Gray who had another strong night blocking 26 shots throughout the night.
While the defeat was hard for the River Rush, there were some big highlights for the team. When asked what went well, the team's captain Bennett Kuhnlein simply said, "Lynden Donald-Gorman."
It was Donald-Gorman's first game with the Rush and he made an excellent debut, earning himself a hat-trick and leading some amazed players to ask the coaching team where they found him. The Edmonton native has been playing hockey since he was three-years-old and played in Junior A leagues in Saskatchewan, Alberta and most recently Manitoba before coming to Quesnel.
"Overall we had a good game," Donald-Gorman said although he was disappointed by the loss. "This year started off pretty rough so it felt good to get it done," he said of his strong showing Saturday night.
Despite the loss in the shootout, the team still gets a point in the division which may help them get to the playoffs down the line.
The Rush has played the least amount of games in the Doug Birks Division, where Kamloops has the top spot followed 100 Mile House and Chase. The Rush are in fourth, above just one team: the Williams Lake Mustangs.
Kamloops has played the most games with 26 followed by the Wranglers with 25, Chase with 24, Williams Lake with 23 and the Rush have had the least opportunity to win points with only 22 games played this season.
The KIJHL's power rankings have the Rush tied for third with the Fernie Ghostriders in the last 10 games played.
"Would have been nice to get the two points," Kuhnlein said, despite the loss he said the team's problems were small. "Just little stuff like getting the puck deep. Just not doing enough to get us the win tonight."
Kuhnlein was the only player aside from Donald-Gorman to get a goal for the Rush. As for what comes next, hometown player Liam Richardson said the team just has to get back to work.
"We played a solid two periods, I feel like we were moving the puck well. We were playing a good, fast game tonight but we just gotta bear down when it matters," Richardson said. "Good times find a way to win so we just gotta get to work."
The first period of the game saw Chase get two goals, the first was six minutes into the match and the second was 15 minutes in. At the 16:52 minute mark Donald-Gorman landed the Rush's first puck in the net.
The team held its soft toss Saturday meaning fans flung toques, gloves and other warm wearables onto the ice. Those were collected and will go to support people in need over the holiday season.
The second period saw the Rush take the lead with Kuhnlein's goal during a powerplay for the Rush getting in the net with an assist from Gage Parrell and Cash Anderson.
Donald-Gorman scored his second goal 13 minutes into the period and less than a minute later finished off his hat-trick.
Unfortunately for the Rush, Chase scored another early into the third period and tied it up with only a minute and 30 seconds left on the clock.
Three of the Rush's best shooters took the puck in the shootout: Max Kinnee, who scored in the Rush's shootout against Williams Lake as well as Kuhnlein and Donald-Gorman but none of them got the puck in the net.
The River Rush will have their next game Friday (Dec. 13) at the West Fraser Centre against Beaver Valley and then they're hitting the road to face Sicamous the day after.
The Roos play both Saturday and Sunday against the Prince Rupert Rampage. The Saturday game will be the Roos' annual teddy bear toss.
