Hlas: Too soon, RoughRiders reach end of long road

CEDAR RAPIDS — It was their biggest game of the season, before a gathering you could describe as intimate.

It was their 65th game that counted in the 2015-16 season, and it was the one that mattered most for the Cedar Rapids RoughRiders. They put their hearts, souls and bodies into it for a seven-month-long season, and it ended with hugs, tears, and a lot of thanks given to each other.

But this biggest game, this deciding fifth game of their United States Hockey League first-round playoff series against the Bloomington Thunder Tuesday night, was witnessed by one of the smallest crowds of the season in the Cedar Rapids Ice Arena. It was announced as 1,553.

'Never for the playoffs,' said Deloris Webber, when asked why there weren't more fans here this night. 'When the (regular) season's over, pfft. It's been that way for years.'

It's no mystery why. In late April, Midwesterners turn to springtime pursuits. Also, there is an obvious reason why nearly all the USHL's games are played on weekends instead of on school/work nights.

Maybe it was best this way. The people here Tuesday were the true-believers, the ones who come to game after game, year after year. They're here to watch hockey, not view the Ice Arena as a wintertime tavern with hockey as the entertainment backdrop.

They get tightly attached to the players. Some wear jerseys to games that bear the names of Riders who haven't played here in a decade or more.

Webber has been a season ticket-holder since the Riders opened shop here in 1999. She has her name on a seat in the back row of the arena. But she doesn't use it a lot, because she's usually standing and cheering.

She was one of the relatively few who were still around to salute the Riders and get saluted back by the players from center ice following the team's 5-2 loss.

The score doesn't indicate what a taut contest it was. Bloomington scored with 5:19 left in the game on a goal that clipped a Thunder player's leg and caromed into the net to break a 2-2 tie. The Thunder added a pair of empty-net goals to eliminate remaining drama and the Riders.

The large Anderson Cup trophy that goes to the team with the best regular-season record belongs to Cedar Rapids, and was on display in the Ice Arena's merchandise shop. But the Riders and Thunder had little separation in ability and desire, much like you see in the National Hockey League's playoffs.

'Bloomington deserves credit,' Riders Coach Mark Carlson said with typical grace. 'They played really well and did a great job.'

A dressing room-full of Riders were still in pads long after the game, hurting, embracing each other, coming to terms with the fact their season had suddenly been halted.

'It's extremely hard,' Carlson said. 'You have a group of guys who are here from late August until here in late April, and all of a sudden they're gone from here in a couple days. It's a difficult thing to deal with.'

Tuesday, Carlson used players from nine different states and three foreign countries. They will eventually be spread back across the country. Sixteen universities have commitments from this year's Riders. Three are Ivy League schools.

They came together here, were forged into a fine team, shared bus rides to North Dakota and Ohio. Maybe one or two will travel in an NHL team's chartered jet one day. Players have gone from here to there.

But on this night they were all together in this city one last time, morose at the thought of not being able to play Dubuque here Friday night in the next round of the playoffs.

For the true-believers, at least they could take home the knowledge the USHL's off-season is a short one. The 2016-17 season-opener is just five months away.