Riders beat Dubuque in shootout, 2-1, for Anderson Cup

CEDAR RAPIDS - He scored the game-winning shootout goal, the Anderson Cup-winning shootout goal and turned around with his arms extended, expecting his teammates to mob him and the crowd at the Cedar Rapids Ice Arena to shower him with shrieks of joy.

Only they didn't come. It was as if everyone was watching Sam Warning on tape delay.

“I felt that, too,” Warning said after his Cedar Rapids RoughRiders clinched the highest regular-season point total in the United States Hockey League with a 2-1 win over Dubuque before 3,012 fans last night. “The crowd didn't really go nuts or anything. (Finally) all the guys came out. I was like ‘All right, whatever.'”

Yeah, whatever. The Riders are officially Eastern Conference champions and have possession of the Anderson Cup for the second time in the franchise's 12 years, the first time since the 2004-05 season.

It's the first time, however, they won't be sharing it with anyone. Job well done, boys.

Anderson Cup celebration:

“Pretty unbelievable feeling,” said Riders captain Jayson Megna. “The USHL season is a grind. To play 60 games and come out on top is a special thing. It's a tribute to how hard everyone in this room worked.”

“I'm so, so happy for our players,” said RoughRiders Coach Mark Carlson, who notched his third division title. “It takes 60 games and 365 days a year of training. I'm just so happy for our fans, for everyone in this organization.”

The RoughRiders (41-12-6, 88 points) are the top seed and have home-ice advantage throughtout the USHL playoffs, which begin next week. They get a first-round bye, not opening what they hope is a long postseason run until April 20.

“A big accomplishment,” said Warning. “It might be the only time in our hockey careers we might be able to get a trophy that's special like this.”

Warning had a game of wild emotions. He scored 10 minutes in on a left-wing rush to put Cedar Rapids on top, then inadvertently knocked a puck into his own net 52 seconds later.

That would be the only thing that got past record-setting goaltender Brady Hjelle. He won his USHL-record 40th game with 36 saves in regulation and overtime and four straight in the shootout.

Two of those stops came with alert poke checks on Dubuque players.

“That was (Nolan) Zajac's idea,” Hjelle said of his teammate. “He said to go for the poke check. I hadn't done it much this year.”

Anderson Cup celebration:

By the way, the Anderson Cup weighs 87 pounds and took a host of RoughRiders to hoist in a special postgame ceremony. You got the feeling it could have weighed 870 pounds, and they would have been able to lift it on this special night.

"Really special to get coach's first outright Anderson Cup," said Hjelle, spending a transfer year from Minnesota-Duluth, which is in Saturday's NCAA championship game. "All of our hard work has paid off ... We're going to enjoy this for a little bit and then refocus for 7 o'clock tomorrow."

That's the RoughRiders' final regular-season game, against Team USA.

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