It's Mohawk-mania as RoughRiders blast Fargo

CEDAR RAPIDS - Don't mess with the Mohawk. Or the mullet, in Zach Lehrke's case.

It's playoff time in the United States Hockey League, and the Cedar Rapids RoughRiders prepped for it last night with a playoff-type performance that resulted in a 5-0 win over the Fargo Force in the final regular-season game at The Stable.

A crowd of 3,602 watched goalie Troy Grosenick post his second shutout in a row and the RoughRiders score three goals in 58 seconds in the third period. If they looked real carefully, they also saw a bunch of newly sheared players.

There were different versions of the playoff Mohawk all around - from the basic variety worn by several players to defenseman Jared Beers' lines shaved into each side of his head.

“If everyone does it, we all look good, I guess,” smiled Cason Hohmann.

“Just kind of a team thing,” Grosenick said. “Half the guys did it Monday, and the rest did it (Tuesday) after practice. The best one is Lehrke's mullet. He's Joe Dirt.”

Hey, whatever works.

The Riders (37-18-3, 77 points) got a second-period goal from Hohmann and put it away with four goals in the third. That included the rapid-fire hat trick from Jayson Megna, Eric Robinson and David Boehm.

Michael Parks had Cedar Rapids' other goal.

“I thought we played really well,” said Hohmann. “We came out and played more as a team tonight. Just played our game.”

The RoughRiders were tremendous defensively, holding the USHL's second highest-scoring team to a mere 11 shots on goal. And that was with five Force power plays.

Several other shots were blocked by Riders defenders.

“Guys were just doing a great job of keeping shots to the outside,” Grosenick said. “They blocked a lot of shots tonight.”

RoughRiders Coach Mark Carlson would seem to have a dilemma on his hands in regards to his goaltending situation going into the best-of-5 first-round playoff series next week against Indiana. Grosenick has two shutouts in a row, and Cody Campbell is 10-3-1 since being acquired midseason from Fargo.

So who's it going to be, Coach?

“We have two goalies that are playing real well,” Carlson said, without tipping his hand. “It's the best possible thing you could have.”

Cedar Rapids ends the regular season with weekend games at Youngstown. The playoffs begin with games at The Stable next Wednesday and Friday.

Here's the postgame celebration of goalies Grosenick and Campbell. It's a golf putting thing, if you can't figure it out.