Anderson Cup gets to Cedar Rapids ... finally

CEDAR RAPIDS — The Anderson Cup wouldn't come to them in a timely enough manner, so the Cedar Rapids RoughRiders went to the Anderson Cup.

Specifically, it was Coach/General Manager Mark Carlson who drove to the Chicago suburbs Sunday to pick up the trophy signifying the United States Hockey League's regular-season champion. The USHL's office is located in the Windy City, if you weren't aware.

The RoughRiders officially clinched a share of the Anderson Cup with a Friday night victory at Waterloo, claiming it outright when Green Bay lost that evening. The Cup was in the same building as the Riders last weekend, but back-to-back losses foiled any on-ice celebrations and created a too-close-for-comfort standings points scenario.

Cedar Rapids ended a great regular season with a win Saturday night at Sioux City. The team got home in the wee hours, Carlson hopped right back on the road, retrieved the Anderson Cup and surprised his players with it when they got to practice Monday afternoon.

Second-year guys Ross Colton, Hugh McGing, Cal Burke and Mitch Reinke got the actual honor of bringing it into the team's locker room at the Cedar Rapids Ice Arena as everyone whooped and hollered. The thing is five-foot tall and heavy.

By the way, the league would have brought the Anderson Cup to Cedar Rapids in time for Friday night's playoff game against Bloomington. Carlson wanted his team to receive it earlier.

'Coach was a little heated after the Waterloo game,' Colton said. 'We all expected it to be on the ice there and stuff. We had no clue that it wasn't going to be there. But we had a good laugh about it on the way home on the bus ... We brought it in today and all went nuts with it.'

'It was kind of weird because we celebrated it in Waterloo without the actual cup,' McGing said. 'But it was fun being able to see it and have it. All the guys have taken pictures with it and everything.'

This is the third time in the club's 17-year history, all under Carlson, that the RoughRiders have won the Anderson. The last time was in 2010-11, its other outright regular-season championship.

Cedar Rapids went 40-15-5, finishing second in the USHL in goals scored and fewest goals allowed. It begins the postseason this weekend at home against Bloomington Friday and Saturday nights, the start of a best-of-5 series.

'As the guys have said right away, we're not done, yet,' Carlson said. 'There are goals we set at the beginning of the year, and we're going to continue to focus on those. But regarding the Anderson Cup, winning it is a tremendous honor. It is a really, really, really hard trophy to win. It's a 60-game battle to win it. You've got to overcome all types of adversity to win it, which our guys did. You've got to find ways to win games. So I think it's a huge honor, and I'm really happy for our guys. They deserve it.'

'We come to battle every day, come to work every day,' said Colton, who set a club single-season record with 35 goals. 'We practice hard, don't get too high or too low. We always stay even keeled. Coach has just done a great job with us. We have a great team, have battled through adversity, through injuries, guys leaving and what not. You always ask these questions, and we always answer that we're just focused on (the next game). But that's really all we do. Focus on getting the next two points.'

The RoughRiders overcame an early season-ending loss to injury of second-year goaltender Ryan Larkin and a preseason injury to second-year defenseman Bryce Hatten that kept him out of all but the final six games. A couple of players, including second-year defenseman Derek Daschke, requested trades early and were accomodated.

Injuries have struck late, too, especially at forward, where important guys Matt Gosiewski and Karch Bachman incurred season-ending shoulder woes. Goalie Ben Blacker was beyond rock solid in picking up the slack after Larkin's injury but missed both games last weekend because of a concussion.

Characteristic of this team, his replacement, Zack LaRocque, was great, allowing two goals in two games despite seeing very little playing time in the regular season.

'They've found ways to win in a lot of different situations,' Carlson said. 'This is why I think winning the Anderson Cup is really cool. You go all the way back to early October. On a Thursday, we played at Fargo, N.D., then on Friday we had to play a rested Tri-City team, with Tri-City being 10 hours from Fargo. Our guys found a way to go in and win two games.

'They've shown great mental toughness and resilience. They've stuck with it. With this group, every single guy has stepped up at some point.'

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