RoughRiders hope this MJ comes up big in playoffs, too

Just have fun. That's it. There's no other real advice.

That's what Cedar Rapids RoughRiders goaltender Mike Johnson heard from his head coach and himself in internal discussions, so to speak.

Just have fun. It's so easy to say and sometimes so hard to do.

"I am having fun right now," Johnson said. "The biggest thing for me was not to go out there and put pressure on myself. I'm having a blast, and all the guys are playing awesome. That makes my job a lot easier when they're playing as well as they are. Everybody is just having a lot of fun right now."

Johnson, a 20-year-old from Verona, Wis., was named the United States Hockey League's Goaltender of the Week after shutting out Green Bay and giving up one goal (with less than 30 seconds to go) against Waterloo last weekend. The week before he gave up one goal each in a pair of victories over Lincoln and Indiana.

Talk about a great time to be playing well. Johnson and the RoughRiders are doing just that heading into their best-of-5 first-round USHL playoff series against Indiana.

Game 1 is tonight at 7:05 at the Cedar Rapids Ice Arena, with Game 2 Saturday night at The Stable. The series shifts to Indianapolis Wednesday.

"I always say it's a long season, a 60-game season," RoughRiders Coach Mark Carlson said. "These are young guys, and there are always going to be some ups and downs. It's how you manage those ups and downs. These guys have had success over these (last) four games because they've played extremely hard and Mike has played very composed. He's been having fun competing in net.

"And along with all that, they've played loose. They ended up with 38 wins, which in this league is a pretty decent number ... They've found a way to get it going in the right direction."

The RoughRiders finished second overall in the USHL with 81 points, one behind Anderson Cup winner Green Bay. Unfortunately, they finished second in the East Division to Green Bay, too.

The regular-season finishing flourish was impressive for a team that slogged its way through most of March. It was also impressive for Johnson, who struggled for the better part of a month before turning it around and turning it on.

"He's just having fun playing," Carlson said. "We've talked about it as a team. I want everybody to realize this weekend that 'Hey, Cedar Rapids is having fun playing hockey. They're getting after it, they're letting it hang out, they're working' ... That's what Mike Johnson is doing right now."

Johnson finished the regular season with a 25-12-1 record, 2.39 goals against average and .909 save percentage. He ranked second in the USHL in shutouts (3), third in wins and fourth in goals against average.

And he got his college plans in order this week, making a commitment to Notre Dame. What a great week.

He hopes it's a great series, too.

"It's definitely do or die," Johnson said. "It's a new season so it doesn't matter who you're playing or how well you did against them before. It's what you do now. We're just going into this series worrying about Friday's game and not worrying about anything else."

Injured RoughRiders forward Robin Bergman will not play this weekend and is not expected to play at all in the series, Carlson said Thursday. Bergman, a third-year player and top player, has what the team is describing only as a lower-body injury.