Lehrke gives RoughRiders another OT win

Zach Lehrke proved Wednesday night that patience is a virtue that sometimes wins hockey games.

The winger scored 9:33 into overtime with a pretty - and patient - move that gave his Cedar Rapids RoughRiders a 4-3 win over the Indiana Ice in Game 3 of this United States Hockey League playoff series at Pepsi Coliseum in Indianapolis.

Lehrke's heroics give Cedar Rapids a 2-1 series edge headed into Friday night's Game 4 in Indy. A deciding Game 5 would be Saturday night back in the City of Five Seasons.

"I thought it was a real RoughRiders win," RoughRiders Coach Mark Carlson said. "We stayed composed, stayed poised. We didn't get rattled, we didn't get down.

"And Zach Lehrke, what a great play, what a beautiful move he made on the game winner."

Lehrke took control of the puck in his own end and skated swiftly down right wing on what turned out to be a 3-on-2 rush. He waded through traffic and toward the middle of the ice as he hit the Indiana blue line, ending up in the slot and letting go with a wrister that beat Indiana goaltender Brett Bennett to his right, stick side.

"I just got the puck in our end," Lehrke said. "I skated up the boards, it was an odd-man rush, and I didn't see anybody open. So I just kind of waited and shot it, and it went in."

The RoughRiders rallied from a 2-0 first-period deficit, taking a 3-2 lead late into the third on two second-period goals from defenseman Darren Rowe and one from Tobias Nilsson-Roos. Indiana's Brandon Richardson send it to OT with a power-play goal with 2:05 left.

Indiana went 2-for-4 on the man advantage to 0-for-6 for Cedar Rapids, including a full two-minute 5-on-3 power play for the RoughRiders early in the third that came up empty. The Riders almost had the winner in the dying moments of regulation, but a shot from the high slot by Rowe hit the goal post with five seconds to go.

That looked like an ominous sign going to overtime.

"I don't think it affected us too much," said winning goaltender Mike Johnson, superb again with 38 stops. "We just had to keep playing. The next goal was the most important goal."

"It was certainly a turn of events there in the third period," Carlson said. "I thought we played real strong in the third, then we got a little out of synch there on the penalty kill, and it cost us."

The Riders were outplayed substantially in the first period and fell behind on goals at 5:37 from Brent Gwidt and on the power play at 16:47 from Mike Cichy. The Ice outshot Cedar Rapids, 15-8, in the opening 20 minutes.

But Rowe scored twice in 1:48 early in the second period to tie the game. His first goal came on a 1-on-2 rush, his second on a shot from the high slot.

The RoughRiders took the lead midway through the period on Nilsson-Roos' first playoff goal. Lehrke was given the primary assist.

"We weren't working as hard as we needed," Lehrke said. "We just had to start working hard. That's pretty much what Coach told us."

"We went in after the first, and I reminded the guys the game started at 7:30 (Indiana time)," Carlson said. "I don't think we had a lot of guys on our team who knew the game started at 7:30. I think they thought it was an 8:30 start."

Cedar Rapids allowed 30 Indiana shots through two periods, but played a stingy third period defensively, holding the potent Ice to a mere four shots on goal. Both teams had rare power plays in the first eight minutes of OT, Indiana's coming first.

"We're taking it one game at a time," Johnson said. "We've had two good wins here. Now we need a third."

Forward Robin Bergman unexpectedly played last night. He has been out with what the team has been referring to only as a lower-body injury.

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Other quotes from the game.

(Carlson)

"I thought Johnse (Johnson) led the way for us again. Just real good toughness, a lot of key saves for us. He's certainly doing a heck of a job for us back there right now."

(Johnson)

"We kind of had to weather the storm there early."

"I can't say enough about the guys in front of me tonight. They made my job a lot easier."

(Lehrke)

"We'd been playing hard the whole game. We just had to stick to the gameplan going into overtime. We knew we'd be all right if we did that."