Offense shines again as RoughRiders top Chicago, 6-4 (w/fight video)

CEDAR RAPIDS - You figured the spigot would get turned on eventually for Ryan McGrath. Nice to see it has for the rest of the Cedar Rapids RoughRiders, too.

It was six more goals for a hockey club that's resembling the 1980s Edmonton Oilers lately. A 6-4 win over Chicago before 3,615 fans at The Stable featured one from McGrath for a second straight game.

That's significant because the winger's second year in the USHL has been frustrating, with an early season broken wrist taking him out of action for over two months. An 18-goal scorer last season, McGrath went goal-less his first 11 games, finally breaking through Friday night against Dubuque.

He followed up again Saturday night, sharing the love by deciding to pass to teammate Davey Middleton for an empty net goal in the final minute, instead of scoring himself. Cedar Rapids (15-12-7, 37 points) has averaged just under five goals per game in its last nine contests, as McGrath and others have finally regained health.

“I think it's two things,” said Riders Coach Mark Carlson of the offensive uptick. “Guys have worked real hard to improve. Secondly, we've got some continuity in our lines. We've got a lot of young players, and this is not an easy league to get adjusted to. But we're seeing some real good things.”

That includes on the power play. The RoughRiders went 3 for 7 against Chicago and are a sizzling 8 for their last 19.

“Again, we've just had a chance to get some continuity there,” Carlson said. “We haven't had that for a long time.”

Riley Bourbonnais scored twice for Cedar Rapids, which built a 5-2 lead and held on. Defenseman John Gilmour also had a goal, like Bourbonnais, his third in two nights. Dennis Kravchenko also scored.

The RoughRiders had a full lineup, unlike Friday night, when they played two skaters short because of one-game suspensions to Blake Butzow, Preston Hodge, Landon Smith and goalie Jake Hildebrand.

“Coach's decision,” was all Carlson would say.

Here is video of a first-period scrap between Ian Brady of the RoughRiders and Jacob McNamara of Chicago. That settled a score from late in last weekend's game between the two club. As did a later scrap between Kravchenko and Jimmy Devito of Chicago.

Here also is a link to the game boxscore:

http://ushl2011.stats.pointstreak.com/boxscore.html?gameid=1660200