RoughRiders score a lot of goals, and a few of them actually counted

CEDAR RAPIDS - The Cedar Rapids RoughRiders scored a bunch of goals Wednesday night. And some of them even counted.

Bottom line was a 6-4 win over the Bloomington Thunder at the Cedar Rapids Ice Arena. Six different guys had goals, including tiebreakers in the third period 17 seconds apart from Luke Morgan and Matt Gosiewski.

The Riders had to work and fight for these two standings points, maybe a little harder than they should have had to fight. Three Cedar Rapids goals were disallowed that, quite honestly, would have made it a laugher.

'I thought we did an outstanding job,” said Riders forward Zac Robbins. 'Three goals disallowed is tough, but it's always a good sign that we never gave up.”

Robbins scored his third goal of the season in the opening minute of the second period but had another taken away in the third by a peculiarly timed penalty. Just as he executed a neat wrap around to beat Bloomington goaltender Hayden Lavigne, a hooking penalty was called on teammate Tyler Irvine in front of the Thunder net.

The referee immediately waived off the marker. Later in the period, Matt Filipe appeared to score a goal for Cedar Rapids that was ruled null because the net became dislodged after Lavigne kicked it off its moorings.

Coincidentally or not, that also happened earlier in the game. C.R.'s John DeRoche, alone in front, whirled a backhand shot past Lavigne a second after the goalie kicked the net loose.

If that act is ruled intentional, it's supposed to be a two-minute penalty for delay of game. It never was called.

'I think those goals should have counted,” said Morgan. 'There should have been a lot more scoring on our side. But we fought through it and found a way.”

'It was frustrating, obviously,” Robbins said. 'But you can't think about it.”

RoughRiders Coach Mark Carlson, who appeared to be seething behind his team bench, chose not to comment publicly on the disallowed goals.

'The positive was that we kept battling,” he said. 'We didn't let it get us down. We kept plugging away.”

Defenseman Jack Ahcan began the scoring with a bad-angle goal at 8:07 of the first period. Bloomington scored back-to-back goals late in the period for a 2-1 lead, but Robbins tied it 31 seconds into the second and defenseman Taylor Brierley put Cedar Rapids ahead at 13:47 with a great individual effort, stealing a puck near his own blueline, tipping it off the boards to himself for a breakaway and letting go with a well-placed wrister past Lavigne on his blocker side.

Bloomington tied it with an early third-period power-play goal, but Morgan countered that at 6:59 and Gosiewski made it a two-goal Riders lead shortly thereafter. Bloomington made it 5-4 with 11:25 left, but John Snodgrass put it away for Cedar Rapids with a goal with 4:42 remaining.

The RoughRiders (17-7-2-0, 36 standings points) are second in the USHL's Eastern Conference and play Thursday night at Waterloo.

'We had a lot of good energy tonight,” Morgan said. 'Sometimes after a break like we had, you don't have the focus. But we came out jumping.”

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