Bloomington Blaze forward Braydon Metz scored the team's only goal in a 4-1 loss to the Rapid City Rush on Friday, February 22, 2013 at Rushmore Plaza Civic Center in Rapid City, S.D. (Photo by Sonja Erickson/Rapid City Rush)

By Greg Halbleib

RAPID CITY, S.D. - The Bloomington Blaze could muster only one goal for the second straight game and fell 4-1 to the Rapid City Rush on Friday at Rushmore Plaza Civic Center.

The Rush began the scoring with 6:43 left in opening period when Jesse Schultz tallied from the blue line on assists from Jared Brown and Jamie Vanderveeken, but the Blaze answered just 1:13 later on a rebound tally by Brayden Metz assisted by Kyle Bochek and Travis Granbois. The Rush regained a 2-1 lead with 3:47 left in the opening period after a failed Blaze clearance when Vanderveeken wristed a goal from the left point after Scott Brannon had grabbed the puck along the left wall.

After a scoreless second period, Rapid City increased the lead to 3-1 with 13:35 remaining in regulation on a rebound goal from Brown on assists from Kyle Peto and Michael Couch. Just over a minute later with 12:23 left, the Rush made it 4-1 when Winston Day Chief corraled a bouncing puck in front of the goal mouth to light the lamp with assists given to Scott Wray and Jordan Behler.

Neither team scored on the power play, with the Blaze handed two opportunities and the Rush given four. Pier-Olivier Pelletier took the loss with 33 saves while Danny Battochio earned his second straight win over the Blaze with 28 saves.

The Blaze wrap up the season series with the Rush on Saturday night at Rushmore Plaze Civic Center with an 8:05 p.m. Central face-off and pre-game on WJBC.com and CHL-TV at 7:45. The Blaze return home for games on Thursday and Friday, beginning with Thursday's 7:05 p.m. contest against the Quad City Mallards.