McGing’s hat trick keeps RoughRiders rolling

CEDAR RAPIDS — He finished off a great cross-ice feed from a teammate, lost his edge and careened hard into the end boards behind the net.

Sometimes it hurts to score a hat trick, though Hugh McGing will take temporary pain if it means scoring three goals in a game.

'I'll take that any day of the week,' McGing said, after his Cedar Rapids RoughRiders won their fifth game in a row, 4-1, Saturday night over Chicago at the Cedar Rapids Ice Arena.

The 17-year-old winger from Chicago is a tough little sucker anyway, excelling in a fast and physical sport despite measuring 5-foot-7. OK, officially 5-7 1/2, according to the roster.

After getting congratulations from teammates, McGing went into the hallway behind his team's bench and did a couple of stretching exercises to work the kinks out of his right shoulder. The kid never even missed a shift, with that being understandable the way he and linemates Ross Colton and Cal Burke were playing.

Colton had assists on all three of McGing's goals and Burke assisted on two. You can bet you'll see that trio back together for the Riders' game Sunday afternoon at Madison.

'This just shows that my linemates are working their asses off,' said McGing. 'They're doing all the work.'

McGing has 17 goals this season, second on the team to Colton's 19. This was his second hat trick of the season, as he picked up one against Muskegon right before the Christmas break.

He scored 59 seconds into the second period, converting a great and patient cross-ice pass from defenseman Mitch Reinke. His second goal late in the second period made it a 3-0 game.

Justin Cole scored 50 seconds into the game for Cedar Rapids, which leads the United States Hockey League with 47 standings points, on a 22-8-3 record.

'I just love the way Hugh competes,' said Riders Coach Mark Carlson. 'He just has a tremendous passion for the game. Obviously, he's got tremendous ability, but without the passion he competes with, all the other good things don't happen.'

Goaltender Ben Blacker made 23 stops to pick up his second win in as many nights. Chicago ended his shutout bid on a Brandon Duhaime goal with 7:53 to go.

Cedar Rapids won the shots on goal battle as well, 29-24.

'We did a lot of good things,' Carlson said. 'Moving forward, we've just got to be more consistent shift to shift. Do the things that everybody can do. That's important. It's a learning process. Chicago's a good team, gave us a battle tonight. We were just able to capitalize on our opportunities.'

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