RoughRiders blown out in Game 1, 7-2

Gotta have a short-term memory in the playoffs.

That's what Cedar Rapids RoughRiders head coach Mark Carlson was overheard telling someone after his team was unexpectedly blown out by the Indiana Ice, 7-2, in Game 1 of this United States Hockey League postseason series last night before 2,137 shocked fans at the Cedar Rapids Ice Arena.

Nope, you don't want to hang on to this one for any length of time. Forget it and move on, especially with Game 2 tonight at 7:05 at The Stable.

"The great thing is this is a five-game series," said RoughRiders defenseman Paul Phillips.

Win tonight, and the Riders go to Indianapolis on Wednesday night even. Lose tonight, and .... well, don't think too much about that, yet.

"I thought we played hard the whole game tonight," Carlson said. "I thought we had some good scoring chances. It's a five-game series, and Game 2 is tomorrow."

That's not to say Cedar Rapids doesn't have some things to improve on in Game 2. They always say special teams and goaltending are extra important in the playoffs, and those two categories went the way of Indiana in a decided way last night.

The Ice scored a league-record three short-handed goals, two in a four-goal first period that put this one out of reach early.

Three minutes in, Brent Gwidt poked home a rebound of an original shot he took from the faceoff circle as he skated into the RoughRiders zone. Eleven minutes later, Zach Golembiewski had a breakaway from his own blueline and finished off a rebound of an original try Riders goaltender Mike Johnson made a kick save on.

For good measure, or bad measure, Ben Albertson blindly threw a puck from inside his own blue line the length of the ice and into an empty net with 6:20 to go in the game. Carlson had pulled his goalie for a 6-on-4 power play.

Cedar Rapids went 1-for-8 on the man advantage to Indiana's 0-for-3. But, oh, those shorties.

"It's always tough when that happens," Phillips said. "Indiana really pressures the point men ... We've just got to fix our mistakes and come out strong tonight."

"I thought we had a lot good chances on the power play. I thought we played well in the first period, did a lot of good things," Carlson said. "One of the areas we touched on obviously after the first period was giving up short-handed breakaways. You can't do that, especially this time of year. That's not going to help you win hockey games. But I'm not going to lose sight of the good things we did in this game."

Johnson was so good to end the regular season, giving up just three goals in his last four games. But he was pulled in favor of Troy Grosenick for the final 40 minutes after allowing those four first-period markers, three of which came on large rebounds. The fourth, with 10.9 seconds left in the period was a fluttering shot from Sebastian Geoffrion that went off of Johnson's blocker and into the net.

"I think Mike would tell you he'd like to have one back," Carlson said. "But that's the way it goes."

"I was (fighting the puck)," Johnson said. "You do have to have a short-term memory, especially as a goalie. We've all got to shake this one off."

Mike Seidel and Ben Lynch were the RoughRiders' goal scorers in the second and third periods, respectively. First-team all-USHL goalie Brett Bennett struggled the final week of the regular season for Indiana but was solid last night.

Cedar Rapids outshot the Ice by a 39-23 margin, but that was an incredibly misleading statistic.