Cedar Rapids RoughRiders impressive in 7-3 win over Bloomington in USHL playoff opener

CEDAR RAPIDS — Encouraging thing number one. The Cedar Rapids RoughRiders scored a bunch of goals Friday night.

Encouraging thing number two. None of them came from the franchise single-season record holder.

Encouraging thing number three. Their goaltender looked no worse for wear after missing last weekend with a concussion.

Encouraging thing numbers four through infinity. They won their Clark Cup playoff opener.

Quite an opening statement for Cedar Rapids, which began its postseason with an impressive 7-3 win over the Bloomington Thunder before 2,042 fans at the Cedar Rapids Ice Arena. Game 2 of the best-of-5 series is right back here Saturday night at about 7:15.

'We did a lot of good things,' said RoughRiders Coach Mark Carlson. 'I thought we played hard, executed pretty well. Bottom line is we've got to put this one behind us here and come back here better tomorrow night.'

There was a pregame ceremony honoring the Riders' capturing the Anderson Cup, for most regular-season standings points. In between the first and second period, members of the club's front office officially received the Cowbell Cup, which goes to the team with the most standings points in games between Cedar Rapids, Waterloo and Dubuque.

Apparently this group isn't content with just those accomplishments. The RoughRiders got first-period goals 35 seconds apart from Matt Filipe and John Snodgrass, knocked Bloomington starting goaltender Hayden Lavigne out of the game in the second period and built a 6-0 lead.

'Just get the win, that's all that matters this time of year,' Filipe said. 'We came out and had a good first period and continued that throughout the game. It's huge in a series like this to get the first win.'

The noticeable late-season improvement of Pavel Tkachkov continued, as the 17-year-old Russian scored twice. Two of his three regular-season goals came in the final couple of weeks.

'I'm very excited to score twice,' he said. 'But the guys did a good job of (setting me up).'

Jacob Hayhurst and Cal Burke also scored for the RoughRiders. Ross Colton, who had a record 35 goals in the regular season, was held off the scoresheet, sans an assist on Burke's breakaway goal late in the second.

C.R.'s top line of Colton, Burke and Hugh McGing had 'just' that goal and assist.

'We've had great depth all year,' Filipe said. 'We've gone through a lot this season, with trades and injuries and stuff like that. Things we can't control. But the thing we can control is going out every night and working hard. Make sure every guy is playing as hard as he can. Tonight we had everybody going. You're going to need that this time of year in the playoffs.'

'That's kind of been the story of this team all year long. We've had different guys step up every single night,' Carlson said. 'For us, it doesn't matter what line is playing against what line on the other team. All our guys can go, and I thought that's what you saw tonight. We had a lot of different guys step up and score.'

Bloomington scored three times in the third period to end goalie Ben Blacker's shutout bid. He made 27 saves in his return, after missing his club's final two regular-season games.

Two of the Thunder's three goals came on the power play. They had the USHL's best power play in the regular season.

Staying out of the penalty box obviously is important in this series for the Riders.

'We have to play better defensively tomorrow, for sure. No question about that,' Carlson said. 'We need to be more consistent throughout the game.'

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