A total team effort for Cedar Rapids RoughRiders in playoff-opening win

PLYMOUTH, Mich. — After the final Cedar Rapids RoughRiders player in line had gotten to goaltender Bruno Bruveris to tap his helmet and tell him congratulations on the victory and a job well done, guys began to disperse to their locker room at USA Hockey Arena to celebrate winning Game 1 of this United States Hockey League first-round playoff series.

Except Andy Moore and Martins Lavins. The captain and assistant captain of the Riders skated back to their team’s bench and gathered up each and every one of their teammates’ extra sticks.

A road game means no stick boy to take care of that duty. Instead of asking other guys to do that dirty work, Moore and Lavins did it themselves.

With their hands fully full, they skated back across the ice and to the locker room. It’s something great team leaders do.

And it seemed perfect that it happened on a night when Cedar Rapids notched a great team win. Five different players scored goals and six different players recorded assists as the RoughRiders beat the United States National Team Development Program’s U17, 5-2.

Game 2 of this best-of-3 series is Tuesday night at 6 back at USA Hockey Arena. An if-necessary Game 3 would be Wednesday night.

“Huge. We were all talking about that. It’s huge to have that advantage, and now you’ve got to be absolutely full focused to win Game 2,” Lavins said. “To potentially win the series in two games would be really big. Not that we’re looking forward to the next series, but if we can win tomorrow, we’d have an extra off day to rest, and that would be huge.”

Lavins had C.R.’s first goal, tapping home a rebound of a backhand shot by Moore just 2:04 into the second period and just after an unsuccessful power play. Team USA actually scored a short-handed goal with 10 seconds left in the first period to take the lead.

Defensemen Bryce Montgomery and Liam Lesakowski scored slap-shot goals from distance 12 seconds apart later in the second to put the RoughRiders ahead, 3-1. Jacob Kraft’s power-play goal a minute later capped one beauty of a tic-tac-toe passing play that began with Ryan Walsh at the left point and went to the right side of the net to Tyson Gross.

Gross immediately centered the puck to a wide-open Kraft for the slam dunk an a 4-1 lead.

“Pretty good game for us, our first playoff game. A lot of positives to take out of it, but a lot of improvements to make as well,” said RoughRiders Coach Mark Carlson. “Definitely a team victory. That’s what we’ve been about all year. If it’s not a team victory, then we’re not winning, it’s that plain and simple.”

Team USA made it a 4-2 game with a goal later in the second period, but Cedar Rapids put the clamps on defensively in the third, holding it to just three shots on goal. Bruveris was very solid in net with 25 saves.

Zacch Wisdom salted things away with an empty netter with two minutes to go.

“We knew exactly what we had to do to win this game,” Lavins said. “Play behind their defensemen, and Bruno was amazing in net tonight. It was a hard-fought battle, and I think we executed our game plan pretty well. We can sharpen up on some things, but they’re a really dangerous team. We’ve got to be smart. They’re trying to cheat the wingers, so we’ve got to be smart with that. But I thought it was a good team victory tonight.”

It appeared Lesakowski was injured a short time after his goal, as he did not play again the rest of the game. Fellow veteran defenseman Brendan Fitzgerald is out of the lineup with an injury for a couple more weeks, Carlson said.

Those were the only negatives here.

“I’ve said all year, and I’m a firm, firm believer in this, that this team is going to keep getting better,” Carlson said.

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