Cedar Rapids RoughRiders hope to carry momentum from unbeaten preseason into USHL regular season

CEDAR RAPIDS — Preseason, shmeeseason, right?

Results are meaningless. Yada, yada, yada.

That’s essentially true. The United States Hockey League doesn’t award any trophies for the best preseason record.

The team with the most standings points in the regular season wins the Anderson Cup. The playoff champion gets the Clark Cup.

That’s it.

Yet it never hurts to go into the regular season with some momentum, and the Cedar Rapids RoughRiders appear to have some. The club won all five of its preseason games: beating Des Moines twice, Dubuque twice and Waterloo once.

Cedar Rapids opens the regular season with a pair of games at the USHL Fall Classic in suburban Pittsburgh: Friday against the Omaha Lancers and Saturday against the Lincoln Stars. All 16 teams in the league play twice at the showcase, which began Wednesday and ends Sunday.

“It’s always nice to win games, no matter when they are,” said RoughRiders Coach Mark Carlson. “But we realize we probably never had our full lineup in there, and other teams probably never had their full lineup in there. So there’s a lot that goes into them, trying different players in different situations. We’re certainly not getting carried away with it. But we felt there were a lot of positives.”

Such as scoring 22 goals in those five games and allowing just 10. Even better, 13 different players had at least one goal and 21 different players recorded at least one point.

That’s getting something from everyone.

“We were able to score, so we liked our numbers on the offensive side,” Carlson said. “We liked our numbers on the defensive side. Our goalies played well. And we feel like we can improve on every single aspect of our game, so there are a lot of positives there.”

Loa Milfors had four goals and three assists in the five preseason games and appears poised for a big second season in the USHL. He is one of 11 guys who played at least one game last season for the RoughRiders.

The others are fellow forwards Amine Hajibi, Landan Resendes, Hans-Martin Ulvebne, Drew Stewart and Haeden Ellis, defenseman Erik Kald, Guerin Slezak and Donovan Hamilton, and goaltender Rudy Guimond. Hajibi had 45 points in 59 games last season for Cedar Rapids, after being acquired in a trade from the USHL’s Green Bay Gamblers.

Defenseman James Mackey played last season for the USHL’s Madison Capitols. Forward Daniel Astapovich played two seasons ago for Madison and the Des Moines Buccaneers before landing last season in the lower-level North American Hockey League, and forward Cayden Casey also played for Des Moines two seasons ago and was in the NAHL last season.

There are 27 guys on the opening-day roster.

“I think this is a team that really wants to work and actually enjoys competing,” Carlson said. “That’s what we usually look for around here. It’s been really fun to work with them so far, and I think it’s just going to be more enjoyable as we go.”

Guimond is a Detroit Red Wings draft pick who should get the majority of the time between the pipes in his second USHL season. The RoughRiders’ home opener is Sept. 28 against Tri-City.

But first, Pittsburgh. A long trip, for sure.

“I like being with our guys wherever we’re at,” Carlson said.

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Comments: jeff.johnson@thegazette.com