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Cedar Rapids RoughRiders hit the road for USHL playoffs
First-round series at Muskegon begins Monday night
Apr. 13, 2025 4:13 pm, Updated: Apr. 15, 2025 2:09 pm
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CEDAR RAPIDS - You look at their results the last month or so and see a competitive hockey team.
The Cedar Rapids RoughRiders have been exactly that, a club that has been in virtually every game. The bad part is they haven’t figured out a way to consistently win those games, those close games.
This week would be the perfect time for them to do so, as the RoughRiders play a best-of-3 United States Hockey League playoff series against the Muskegon Lumberjacks.
All three games are in Michigan. Game times are 6:05 Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday nights. Wednesday’s game would be as needed.
“We’ve been in position to win almost every game over the last 20 or so,” said RoughRiders Coach Mark Carlson. “We just have to push through.”
The RoughRiders weent 26-34-2-3 in a regular season that concluded Saturday night with a 4-2 loss at Dubuque. Their 59 standings points placed them in fifth place in the USHL’s Eastern Conference.
Muskegon went 38-16-4-4 for 84 points, which placed them in third place in the division, just two points behind first-place Youngstown and a point behind second-place Dubuque. It tied with Madison but got third place playoff wise because of a higher ROW (regulation and overtime wins).
The Lumberjacks and RoughRiders played four times in the regular season, with Muskegon winning all four. Of course, all four games were tight: 2-1 and 4-2 at Cedar Rapids, and 3-1 and 2-1 at Muskegon in March.
A.J. Reyelts will be C.R.’s starting goaltender. He had a 21-19-1 regular-season record with a 2.66 goals against average and .890 save percentage.
Muskegon consistently has rotated Stephen Peck (19-6-2, 2.43/.909) and Shikhabutdin Gadzhiev (19-10-2, 2.68/.909) in goal. David Deputy (21 goals, 36 assists, 57 points in 59 games) and Tynan Lawrence (25-29-54 in 56 games) are the team’s leading scorers.
Amine Hajibi leads the RoughRiders in scoring with 54 points (20 goals and 34 assists). Daniel Astapovich also has had a terrific season, with 21 goals, 26 assists and 47 points.
The other first-round series are Green Bay at Madison, Tri-City at Waterloo and Fargo at Sioux City. The rest of the playoffs are all best-of-5 series with each team getting to host at least one game.
“We just have to play our game,” Carlson said. “We’ve played pretty well most nights for a few months now. We really like our team at all positions. We are especially excited with how our players have improved.”
Comments: (319)-398-8258, jeff.johnson@thegazette.com
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