RoughRiders edge Youngstown, 4-3

CEDAR RAPIDS - It's the mark of a good hockey club when it can win without having its ‘A' game.

Make no mistake, the Cedar Rapids RoughRiders were definitely in the ‘B' area most of last night against the Youngstown Phantoms. Maybe ‘B-minus' territory.

Sometimes you've just got to slog through games, and this was one of them.

“We didn't play our best, obviously,” said goalie Brady Hjelle after the Riders' 4-3 win before 2,876 fans at the Cedar Rapids Ice Arena. “Youngstown had a really good game, we were lucky to come away with two points against them. We've got to improve tomorrow night.”

If you don't know, the Green Bay Gamblers come to town for a battle of the top two teams in the United States Hockey League. Cedar Rapids seemingly has chased its Wisconsin rival all season and can finally catch it with a victory.

Green Bay has a one-point lead (80-79) for the Eastern Conference and overall lead in the USHL with two weeks left in the regular season. Yeah, it's one game at a time and all that, but this is a really big “one.”

“We have a chance to get two points against Green Bay and pass them up in the standings,” Hjelle said. “I mean, that'd be huge.”

“We'll see,” cautioned Riders Coach Mark Carlson. “We're never going to change how we approach things. These two points tonight were enormous points. We're not going to change. We'll play that game tomorrow, and then move on to the next one.”

The RoughRiders (37-11-5) had a reason for not being their sharpest last night. It was their fifth game in nine days, all in different cities.

They had an inordinate amount of turnovers in their own zone and appeared to lack jump much of the way. But Hjelle was sharp the first two periods and they got goals from Tanner Pond and Ryan McGrath in the third period to break a 2-2 tie.

McGrath had two goals in the game. Cason Hohmann also scored.

“Going into it, we knew what we had to get done,” said McGrath, who has four goals in his last three games. “We battled through it as a team, got past those (mistakes).”

“I think it's a good sign,” said Carlson, who notched his 401st USHL victory. “It wasn't the prettiest game in the world, but we found a way to do it.”

Hjelle improved his remarkable record to 36-7-4. He has all but one of his team's victories this season.

Defenseman Nolan Zajac returned to the lineup after missing a month with sickness and injury.