Cedar Rapids RoughRiders finish solid season, get ready to build roster for next season

CEDAR RAPIDS — In the end, it just proved to be too much. Too many games in too short of a time.

Almost of them away from home. Far away from home.

The Cedar Rapids RoughRiders had their United States Hockey League season end Sunday night with a 3-1 loss to the Youngstown Phantoms in Game 2 of a second-round playoff series at Youngstown’s Covelli Centre.

Youngstown scored a go-ahead goal midway through the third period and added an empty netter with just over a minute left. The Phantoms won Friday night’s Game 1 in double overtime, 3-2.

“I definitely think we gave it everything,” RoughRiders Coach Mark Carlson said. “An overtime game there a couple of nights ago, and a 2-1 game with an emtpy net tonight. Seven games in 10 days, I think. Our guys did everything they could. I’m really proud of them.

“I give them so much credit.“

That Cedar Rapids was so close to winning both games in this series was heartbreaking in a way, yet also very admirable. As Carlson mentioned, Sunday night’s game was the seventh the team had played in a 10-day span because of the USHL’s inane playoff structure.

The top six (out of eight) teams in each division qualified for the postseason, with the first and second-place teams receiving first-round byes. The fifth and sixth-place teams played a best-of-3 first-round series solely at the home rink of the fourth and third-place teams in the division, respectively.

The second round also was best of 3, all at the home rink of the higher-seeded team. Everything from here on out is a best-of-5, home-and-home series.

The RoughRiders ended the regular season with a Saturday night road game at Des Moines, then bused the next day to Plymouth, Mich., for what turned out to be three games against the United States National Team Development Program’s U17 team. Then it was onto Youngstown.

The team bused back to Cedar Rapids in the wee hours Monday morning after a full week on the road. Brutal for anyone, especially for junior players aged 16 to 21.

Carlson was asked if it was fair to ask kids to play seven games in 10 days. He paused before answering.

“I think a lot of people can and should ask themselves that question,” he said. “It’s a very, very fair question. A very good question. But I would say that no matter what, in life, no matter what situation you are put into, you’ve got to find a way to get the job done. Whether it’s fair or not, that’s for other people to answer. We needed to find a way.”

The USHL announced its all-league teams Monday afternoon, with RoughRiders Ryan Walsh and Eric Pohlkamp both named to the six-player first team.

First-year forward Walsh set the club’s single-season record for points (79), on 30 goals and 49 assists. The Cornell University commit also had seven points (two goals and five assists) in five playoff games.

Pohlkamp, a second-year player, was one of the top-scoring defensemen all season in the USHL. The Bemidji State recruit finished with 16 goals and 35 assists in 59 regular-season games, also picking up all-tournament honors for a United States team that won the international World Junior ‘A’ Challenge in December in Canada.

First-year forward Dylan Hryckowian also made a huge impact with 26 goals and 65 points in 61 games, with a plus-minus rating of plus-30, which was sixth best in the USHL. Second-year forward Zaccharya Wisdom had 28 goals for the RoughRiders.

Wisdom, Pohlkamp and defenseman Zack Sharp were all included on the final Central Scouting list of NHL Draft-eligible players, with defenseman Joe Schiller included on the midseason list. Carlson thinks Walsh and Hryckowian possibly could be draft picks as well.

Cedar Rapids finished the regular season with a 30-23-4-5 record.

“I love to win, and we had a pretty good season that way,” Carlson said. “But the player-development side of it is really, really important, and the personal, off-ice development is as well. A lot of our players made tremendous, tremendous strides. If you look at some of the second-year players we had, and the strides that they made, then some of our first-year guys, from where they are now and where they were in September. There are a lot of really, really good stories there.”

Carlson and his coaching and scouting staff have zero time to relax. The USHL Draft begins Tuesday with Phase I and concludes Wednesday with Phase II.

The guts of next season’s team will come from the Phase II portion of the draft, as well as returning players. Those latter specifics are fluid and unknown right now.

For instance, Cade Littler (a former Phase II draft pick) joined the RoughRiders for the playoffs after his season in the British Columbia Hockey League concluded. The Calgary Flames draft pick was scheduled to play in Cedar Rapids next season but a new coaching staff at Minnesota State (where Littler has committed) could change that.

By the way, Carlson marveled at the closeness this year’s team developed, even with several midseason additions like Sharp, Jack Musa, Tyson Gross, Charlie Lurie and Bryce Montgomery.

“Maybe the best story was when the guys were really tight at the end of (Sunday night’s) game in one gigantic team hug,” Carlson said. “They stayed that way for a number of minutes. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that before. That’s the way we try and do things here as the Cedar Rapids RoughRiders.”

Here is a look at final individual statistics for the RoughRiders.

Comments: (319)-398-8258, jeff.johnson@thegazette.com