Riders end 1st half with 5-0 trouncing of Waterloo

CEDAR RAPIDS - Head home and enjoy the holidays, boys. You've earned your break.

Quite a first half for the Cedar Rapids RoughRiders, who roughed up the rival Waterloo Black Hawks, 5-0, last night before 3,119 fans at The Stable, thanks in large part to Cason Hohmann's hat trick.

It's not technically the midway point of the USHL season because that'll come in another seven games. But pre-Christmas, the RoughRiders have been preternatural.

Despite a road-heavy schedule, they're tied with Dubuque for the league's best record (17-4-2) and with Dubuque and Green Bay for the league's highest point total (36). They haven't played Green Bay, yet, but are 2-0 against the Fighting Saints.

With so many returning players, expectations were high for this group, and they've met every one of them thus far.

“Pretty good,” RoughRiders Coach Mark Carlson said. “We've got a lot of guys improving. We've got a long way to go, we haven't accomplished anything, yet. I think we've played with real good mental toughness, been able to win close games.

“We're a lot younger than people think. Yes, we do have some experience back, but we're young. We've got a long, long way to go, but I'm happy with the progress we've made.”

It was appropriate that goaltender Brady Hjelle ended the first half the way he did because he's been brilliant in his return to town from Minnesota-Duluth. He made 25 saves for his third shutout of the season, raising his record to 16-2-1 and lowering his goals against average to 1.82.

Hohmann provided way more offense than was needed, scoring twice in the second period and securing his second hat trick of the season just 45 seconds into the third. He has 11 goals this season, six in two games.

Michael Parks scored on the power play just 3:15 in. Rasmus Juell added insult to injury with eight minutes left.

The RoughRiders' next game is Dec. 29 at home against the same Black Hawks.

"Learning what it takes to play as a team consistently for 60 minutes," Carlson said, when asked what improvements he'd like to see from his club. "Just understanding the team concept, the sacrifices you have to make, how hard that you have to work to be consistent. We always say you start out as a group, then become a team.

"(Also) the power play. We've used tons of people on the power play, so the numbers might not be great. We'll get better there. That'll improve."

Here is the game boxscore:

http://ushl.stats.pointstreak.com/boxscore.html?gameid=1341469