An early goal from Ben Rakowski and a perfect penalty kill were not enough to get the Grit back into the win column as Colorado fell 2-1 to El Paso on Saturday night.

 

Physicality from the previous night carried over into Saturday’s contest early on when Grit defenseman Alex German and Rhino forward Rasmus Nousianien dropped the gloves and earned game misconducts for fighting less than five minutes after puck drop. The Grit penalty kill notched their first of six successful efforts when Carson Pavlowich picked up a high-sticking minor with 13:43 left in the first period. The minor was followed up by rookie Cole Peters earned his first career major penalty for a heavy check from behind as Colorado’s defensive corps would be shorthanded for the rest of the first period. It was the Grit’s power play that got the scoring going when Rakowski punched the puck past El Paso goalie Joey LoVullo for his third goal of the season to give the Grit the lead, 1-0, with 3:01 left in the first period.

 

The Rhinos turned on the offense in the second period, spraying 15 shots in the direction of Colorado netminder Pete Sterling. After an early offensive flurry from the Grit in the opening four minutes, the home side turned up the heat. Matching roughing minors to Kennan Reyelts and Jacob Solano were merely a bump in the road for Sterling, who finished the night with 30 saves. Colorado’s penalty kill was put to work twice more during the middle period after a pair of penalties taken by the goal scorer Rakowski. Between Sterling and the penalty kill, Colorado was able to take their 1-0 lead into the second intermission.

 

El Paso kept knocking on the door, but Sterling continued to stonewall the home side with three more stops in the opening five minutes of the period. With 13:04 left in the third period, the Rhinos finally found a breakthrough when forward Ryder Many Grey Horses pushed the puck past Sterling for his fourth goal of the year to tie the score, 1-1. Less than ninety seconds later, Many Grey Horses doubled up and snapped a shot past Sterling to give the Rhinos their first lead of the night, 2-1, with 11:40 remaining in regulation. The Grit pulled Sterling for the extra attacker with 1:40 remaining and pushed two more shots towards LoVullo but were unable to find a tying tally as the final buzzer sounded.