Indiana ends RoughRiders' streak, 2-1

CEDAR RAPIDS - As he got up from his seat and began to leave The Stable, a Cedar Rapids RoughRiders season-ticket holder joked that he knew what the difference was between last night's game and Friday night's.

The Indiana Ice left their goaltender in net the entire game. Ha, ha.

Cab Morris was good, especially in the final two periods, not to mention lucky, especially in the dying seconds, as he and his team edged the RoughRiders, 2-1, before 3,177 fans. It was the Riders' first regulation loss in 16 games.

That was Jan. 15 at Green Bay, 4-3. Quite a run, boys.

“We've been playing extremely well as of late,” said RoughRiders captain Jeff Costello. “I mean, it's not like we had a bad weekend this weekend. We got one of the wins, and I thought we played very well tonight. You've got to give Indiana credit, though. They came out tonight and played a hell of a game against us. It happens sometimes. You just fall a little bit short.”

The Riders (31-16-3, 65 points) won the opener of this two-game set Friday night, 7-2, scoring three times into an empty net. But Morris statistically is one of the top goalies in the USHL, and he showed why with 35 saves, settling in after appearing to fight the puck much of the first period.

And he didn't get credit for the biggest save of the game. That came in the final 15 seconds, as Costello banged what would have been the tying goal off the right goal post, with Morris down and out on the play.

Costello smashed his stick on the ice in frustration after the final buzzer sounded.

“Yeah, I'll be seeing that one in my sleep,” he said.

Indiana (30-17-2, 62 points) scored twice in the second period, on goals from Chris Martin and Bryon Paulazzo. Costello poked home a rebound on the power play midway through the third for his team-leading 28th goal.

“We had a lot of chances there in the first period and didn't capitalize,” Riders Coach Mark Carlson said.