RoughRiders drop another, this time to Waterloo

CEDAR RAPIDS - To use what has become the sports term everyone seems to be using these days, things have kind of gone sideways for the Cedar Rapids RoughRiders.

A 6-4 loss last night to Waterloo at the Cedar Rapids Ice Arena continued a troubling pattern of recent play for the green and white.

The RoughRiders have lost four of their last five, and, frankly, were fortunate to win the one earlier this week against Des Moines.

They have surrendered first place overall in the USHL to Sioux City.

Their Eastern Conference lead is down to just three points.

It's not only Muskegon that's right on their heels, either.

Third-place Youngstown is just five points back of them and fourth-place Dubuque, six.

'We're not taking care of the puck,” RoughRiders Coach Mark Carlson said. 'I think that is the biggest thing … If you don't have the puck, you can't play fast. If you don't have the puck, you can't make plays. Just taking care of the puck is the biggest thing for us right now.”

Waterloo got a hat trick from Brock Boeser, whose 1-on-1 goal with 10 seconds left in the second period was the gamebreaker. Boeser, a probable high-round pick in this summer's NHL draft, deked his way past defenseman Logan Von Ruden down the left side and slipped a pretty backhand past goaltender Ryan Larkin.

He had an almost equal beauty with 6:02 left in a wild third period when both teams scored three times.

'We kept battling. That was good,” Carlson said. 'Obviously, we made some mistakes we shouldn't make that they capitalized on. That was kind of the story, I thought.”

Adam Gaudette scored eight minutes into the game on a breakaway after being sprung on a home run feed by teammate Matt O'Donnell. Tyler Sheehy scored off a 2-on-1, odd-man rush just 23 seconds later for Waterloo, and put the Black Hawks up for good with a power-play rebound goal at 7:29 of the second.

Zach Court had a pair of late third-period goals for the RoughRiders (29-14-0, 58 points). Andrew Gaus also scored.

Troubling news late came when captain Andrew Oglevie had to be helped off the ice and to the trainer's room with a head injury, incurred on a net scrum. Cedar Rapids has a three-in-three weekend upcoming: at Des Moines, at home against Sioux City and at Dubuque.

'I think teams have played really well against us defensively lately,”

Carlson said. 'You have to credit them. But we have got to learn to be better. We scored tonight, and you should win when you score four. We scored three last night (in a 6-3 loss at Bloomington), and you should win when you score three.”

l Comments: (319) 398-8259; jeff.johnson@thegazette.com