From Rapid City Rush.com:

(Allen, TX) – Facing adversity, the Rapid City Rush answered the call yet again, mounting a comeback in game 4 of the Ray Miron President’s Cup Finals to even the series 2-2.  Rapid City scored four unanswered goals, including three in the second period en route to a 4-2 victory on Friday night.  The win now means that game 6 will be played on Tuesday, May 4th at 6:35pm at the Rushmore Plaza Civic Center.  Tickets are available for that game.

For the second straight game, the Americans took a 2-0 lead in the first period, collecting a pair of powerplay goals on their first two chances.  The first came just 2:43 into the first on a backdoor pass from Bruce Graham that was directed home by Justin Bowers for his 11th of the playoffs.  Just 29 seconds later, the Americans would strike again, this time it was Graham’s turn when he accepted a pass in the high slot and fired a wrist shot past Danny Battochio for the 2-0 lead.

It took nearly until the midway point of the second period for Rapid City to answer, but they did in a big way.  Gio Flamminio sent a wrist shot in front that was deflected home by Derek LeBlanc for his 8th of the playoffs at the 9:21 mark.  A few minutes later, Rapid City was awarded a 5-on-3 powerplay, and Brendon Hodge unloaded a cannon from the point that found the top-right corner to tie it.  At the 17:10 mark, Les Reaney received an outlet pass from Brendon Cook, springing him on one with Scott Wray.  Reaney decided to keep the puck and fire a snap shot five-hole past Whitley for the 3-2 lead heading into the intermission.

Capping off the scoring on the night was Jon Pelle, who collected his first goal in ten games when he picked up a pass from Brendon Hodge and put it in the open net as netminder Chris Whitley was down on the play.

Danny Battochio made 27 saves for his 10th win of the playoffs while Whitley was dealt the loss despite making 35 stops on the night.  Rapid City gave up two powerplay goals on the first two chances, but then killed off the remaining four chances by the Americans.   On the other end, the Rush powerplay ended the night 2-for-8, scoring multiple powerplay goals for the first time this post-season.

Game five is scheduled for tomorrow at 6:30pm MST.

Editor's Notes:
I must say I was extremely worried after seeing the Americans score two goals in rapid succession during the 1st period tonight.

But what I was pleased about seeing was that Battochio, maybe out of embarrassment of being pulled during the last game, didn't want to watch the rest of this game from the bench.

He buckled down and didn't allow a single goal for the next 56+ minutes of the game.

And the offense backed him up by posting some great goals in the 2nd and 3rd periods, respectively, to even the series.

I knew, going into tonight's game, that the series may all be lost if we couldn't pull out the W tonight.  Game Five would be much easier to handle with a tied series than being down 3-1.

Looking forward to tonight's game, and hopefully bringing the series back to Rapid with a 3-2 lead for Tuesday's game.