It’s the Cedar Rapids RoughRiders with the late winning goal Tuesday night

CEDAR RAPIDS - The Cedar Rapids RoughRiders picked the very best time to beat the Muskegon Lumberjacks for the first time this season. And just about the very best way to do it.

Heath Nelson’s goal with 59 seconds left gave the Riders a 4-3 win in Game 2 of this United States Hockey League first-round playoff series Tuesday night at Muskegon’s Trinity Health Arena. A winner-take-all Game 3 is Wednesday night (6:10 opening faceoff) at the same site.

Nelson’s goal came off a loose puck in front after a good forechecking shift from he, Charles Blanchard and Thomas Vandenberg. Blanchard fed Vandenberg, who got a shot off in front that Muskegon goaltender Steven Peck stopped.

But Peck couldn’t control the puck, with Nelson pouncing on it and shooting it through his legs.

“Chuck made a good pass to Vandy in the slot, who put it on net,” Nelson said. “Then I just looked down, and the puck was at my feet. Just threw it on net, and it happened to go in, so that was really nice. It felt great, especially to take the lead late in the game. We didn’t want to go to overtime. We wanted to win the game, get off the ice and get ready for the next game.”

The RoughRiders appeared cooked when Tynan Lawrence went coast to coast on a brilliant rush and goal that gave Muskegon a 3-1 lead just 1:08 into the third period. But Grant Young got that one back just over two minutes later for C.R., and Kole Hyles tied things with 8:30 remaining.

Hyles took a faceoff at the dot to the right of Peck. The puck didn’t really go anywhere, with Hyles digging it away from a prone Muskegon player and wristing a shot high glove.

“Obviously, I was trying to snap the puck back, but it kind of got caught up in our feet,” Hynes said. “I just saw the puck squrt out to me and just got a shot at the net ... There was a screen, it just found its way into the back of the net.”

This was the first win in five tries this season for the Riders over Muskegon. The Lumberjacks won four close and low-scoring games in the regular season and Monday night’s Game 1, 2-1, on a goal with just over a minute remaining.

Cedar Rapids won the shots battle here, 26-18. Muskegon may or may not be without leading scorer David Deputy for Game 3, as he was given a five-minute head-contact major penalty and game misconduct in the first period.

“We had pretty good energy on the bench during the game,” Nelson said. “We never really had a doubt at all. You’ve got to keep working, keep working through the adversity. We ultimately found a way to come back. It just took everyone believing.”

“We just kept playing,” said RoughRiders Coach Mark Carlson. “As I said yesterday, I think we’ve been playing really good hockey for a couple of months here.We thought we played well last night, didn’t win. We just kept working at it tonight and were able to get the win. Now we’ll get ready for tomorrow.”

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