Indiana beats banged-up Riders in Game 3, 3-1

INDIANAPOLIS - The Cedar Rapids RoughRiders get to spend a couple extra days in the Hoosier State now. Not that they really want to.

The Riders failed to close out their first-round USHL playoff series last night, giving up a pair of second-period goals and losing to the Indiana Ice, 3-1, in Game 3 at Pan Am Plaza. Cedar Rapids still leads the best-of-5 series, two games to one, with Game 4 Monday at the Ice's temporary home, about a 500-seat practice-type facility.

Pepsi Coliseum, Indiana's main arena, is unavailable because of a horse show. That's the least of the RoughRiders' worries, considering both stalwart defenseman Mac Bennett (broken foot) and winger Sam Warning (broken collarbone) are done for the rest of the season with injuries incurred in Game 2.

“We miss them both,” said Riders Coach Mark Carlson. “But at the same time, we think we have good depth. That's been our theme all year.”

Casey DeSmith replaced Cab Morris in goal for Indiana, making his first playoff start a solid one with 28 saves. Only Zach Lehrke was able to beat him, converting a nice centering feed from behind the net by pinching defenseman Bryce Aneloski with 8:24 left.

That cut the Indiana lead to 2-1, but the RoughRiders could never get the equalizer. Nic Dowd's empty netter with just over a minute left clinched the victory.

"That didn't really surprise me," Carlson said of Ice head coach Jeff Blashill's decision to go with DeSmith. "They have two good goaltenders."

Max Cook scored on a goal-mouth scramble 6:28 into the second period to put Indiana on top, 1-0. The Ice got their first multi-goal advantage of the series about five minutes later when Shane Berschbach converted a breakaway shortly after a RoughRiders penalty was killed off.

Cedar Rapids went 0 for 6 on the man advantage and was outshot for the third time in this series, 39-28. Troy Grosenick was solid again in goal for the Riders but took the loss.

“It was just one of those games for us,” Carlson said. “We just didn't seem to have a lot of energy tonight. I think tomorrow will be great for us, giving us a chance to get some rest.”