Last-second goal ends RoughRiders' season

An incredible game. An incredibly tough way to end your season.

Defenseman Torey Krug scored with just 15.5 seconds left to cap one of the wildest nights ever at the Cedar Rapids Ice Arena, giving the Indiana Ice a 7-6 win over the Cedar Rapids RoughRiders in the deciding Game 5 of this first-round United States Hockey League playoff series.

Krug's blast from inside the right faceoff circle beat Riders goaltender Mike Johnson high to the glove side and stunned the noisy 2,229 fans on hand.  Ice forward Shane Berschbach took a pass at the Cedar Rapids blue line along the left boards and maneuvered his way through several Riders defenders, circling behind the net and throwing a perfect feed to a pinching Krug.

That was just one of seemingly a million grand offensive plays in this wide-open affair that featured 72 shots on goal (39 from Indiana) and saw each team rally from a two-goal deficit.

"That was a heck of a hockey game," understated RoughRiders Coach Mark Carlson. "The people that were here ... no matter what type of sports fan you are, for me, I don't know if there's a better sporting event than what we just saw. I wish we would have won. That would have made it better."

Cedar Rapids had a 3-1 lead after a period. It was tied after two, 4-4, with Indy getting goals from Brandon Richardson and Will MacDonald in the first 2:06 of the third to go ahead for what looked like for good, 6-4.

But Kyle Flanagan came right back to score his second goal of the game 54 seconds later to get Cedar Rapids back in it. The club's all-time leading scorer Mike Seidel then tied it at the 11:23 mark with a highlight goal, breaking through on right win 1-on-2 and backhanding a puck high and past Ice goalie Brett Bennett. Seidel also had two goals in the game, as did Tobias Nilsson-Roos.

"It was two skilled teams and a lot of guys that can make plays," Carlson said. "Both teams were able to capitalize quite a bit tonight."

"Obviously it's heartbreak," Seidel said in a dead-quiet locker room. "We were able to battle back from two goals down. It's hard to talk about right now. Yeah, this was definitely one of the hardest losses I've ever suffered, especially in this league."

Through two periods, this game closely resembled Game 3 of this series - only in reverse.

It was Cedar Rapids that took the first-period lead for the first time in these five games, when Seidel punched home a rebound at the 13:21 mark. Mike Cichy tied it at 1-1 with a bullet of a wrist shot from the slot on the power play at 15:28, but Flanagan scored just 26 seconds later and Nilsson-Roos added another goal with 1:21 left in the period for a 3-1 RoughRiders edge.

Flanagan's goal was set up by Jeff Costello, who rushed down left wing and threw a perfect centering feed across the crease that Flanagan tipped into the net past Bennett. Nilsson-Roos pounced on a loose puck at the side of the net.

The four goals came in a span of 5:26. There would be for more goals scored in an equally wild second in a span of 6:46.

Richardson scored on a nice Cichy setup at 12:06 to make it a 3-2 game, then Ben Albertson finished off a 3-on-2 break with a shot from the right-wing circle that squeezed through the pads of Johnson to tie things.

Indy wasn't finished. Riders defenseman Matt Donovan made one move too many in the high slot in the Ice zone and lost the puck to Stanislav Galiev, with the talented 17-year-old Russian breaking down ice on the right side and getting off a shot that Johnson made the save on. Unfortunately the puck caromed right to Gwidt on the left side of the net and he sent it home for a stunning 4-3 Ice lead with 1:52 left in the period.

You might remember Cedar Rapids trailed Game 3 by a 2-0 margin after a period, but scored the next three goals to go ahead in a game it won in overtime.

Nilsson-Roos, however, gave the Riders a huge momentum boost going into the intermission by hopping on a loose puck, just like his first goal, and beating Bennett just 46 seconds later to tie it back up a 4-4. It was the third goal of the series for Nilsson-Roos, who missed a large chunk of the regular season with a variety of injuries.

"Any way you end your season is tough," said RoughRiders forward Zach Lehrke, who won that aforementioned Game 3 with an overtime goal. "We've just got to be hungry next year."

Lehrke is one of 12 guys who will go to this summer's tryout camp who could return next season. The others are defensemen Doug Leaverton, Brock Carlston, Bryce Aneloski and Nate Jensen, goalie Troy Grosenick and forwards Brett Gensler, Cody Murphy, Eric Robinson, Costello, Jared Rickord and Ben Lynch.

Now the immediate scene turns to who will own the RoughRiders next season.

USHL Commissioner Skip Prince said last week that the league is proceding with two new possible owners. Three previous attempts to purchase the club from current owner Mercantile Capital Partners have failed, including one this season.

It doesn't appear that whomever runs the RoughRiders in 2009-2010 will be looking for a new head coach.

"If the new owners will have me," was Carlson's reply, when asked if he planned to return next season.