Blaze forward Dan Barczuk (center) scored Bloomington's only goal during a 2-1 home loss on Wednesday to the Rapid City Rush. (Photo by Jacob Blome/Bloomington Blaze)

By Greg Halbleib

BLOOMINGTON - The Bloomington Blaze fell 2-1 to the Rapid City Rush on Wednesday night at U.S. Cellular Coliseum.

The Rush opened the scoring with 14:04 left in the opening period when Jeff Lee worked through traffic in the slot and wristed the puck home with assists given to Rusty Masters and Scott Brannon.

Rapid City built the lead to 2-0 with 17:10 remaining in the middle chapter on a Winston Day Chief redirect, assisted by Jamie Vanderveeken and Jordan Behler. Dan Barczuk put the Blaze on the board with 7:50 left in the second period on a running tally from the right circle on feeds from Nicolas Rioux and Steve Makway on a power play to cut the Rush advantage to 2-1. That ended the scoring on the game as the Blaze emptied the net for the final minute but could not capitalize.

Both teams were 1-of-4 on the power play. Danny Battochio earned the win with 21 saves while Pier-Olivier Pelletier took the loss with 30 stops.

The Blaze and Rush square off again on Friday and Saturday at Rapid City for 8:05 p.m. Central face-offs each night. The Blaze return home next week to face the Quad City Mallards on Thursday and the Fort Worth Brahmas on Friday.