The Rush are down, but not out, of the Presidents' Cup Finals.

Even though the Rush severely outshot the Allen Americans 49-21 through three periods they couldn't get the goals when they needed them, falling 4-1 and being down in a series for the first time in the playoffs.

The first period was a scoreless as the Rush came out firing on all cylinders, checking the Americans hard into the boards and getting 13 shots on goal.  They just didn't seem to get any good bounces to squeeze one to the back of the net.

Then all hell seemed to break loose in the second.

Nathan ONabigon (Huculak, Salekin) got one by Battochio at 3:49.  The Rush intensity seemed to be dwindling as the second period went on.  There weren't as many hard checks into the boards or fighting to setup a screen in front of the net.  Could playing the Cup Finals so close to finishing a 7-game series have caused this?  Its hard to say.

Allen didn't waste any time in jumping on the Rush to increase their lead.  Nino Musitelli (Fairbarn) poked another one through at 8:57.  It was followed by two more American goals at 16:07 by Tobias Whelan (Lukin) and a powerplay goal at 19:06 by Nino Musitelli (Bowers, Benn).

The entire Ice Arena was in disarray as the Rush entered the 2nd Intermission down 4-0.  Thoughts of the 6-1 blowout against the Mudbugs were creeping back into the minds of all the Rush-faithful.

Entering the 3rd period, the Americans were playing "prevent hockey".  Only doing enough to hold onto the lead and not make any errant mistakes.

And even though the Rush were on the powerplay three times over the course of the period they couldn't take advantage.  Their lone goal came in a 4-on-4 situation at 16:50 by Dave Grimson (Weselowski, Hodge).

It was shortly after that point that the Ice Arena became to empty, watching the final minutes on the TV monitors in the midway as they exited the Civic Center.

But one game does not a series make.  If we can split the series before heading to Texas next week then we can still set the tone for the three games to follow.

Keep your heads high, Rush fans, we may be down but we are far from out.

All photos con­tained within this post remain the sole prop­erty of Mike Crook and Free Sports Press and may not be repro­duced with­out permission, obtain­able by email­ing Mike Crook.