Playoff scenarios aplenty for RoughRiders

CEDAR RAPIDS – It makes it difficult to sell playoff tickets when you don't know what dates you are selling them for. Just ask the Cedar Rapids RoughRiders.

'Definitely keeps things interesting,” said Riders Corporate Sales Executive Jason Shaner.

The RoughRiders conclude the United States Hockey League regular season with a road game Friday night at Waterloo and home game Saturday night against Chicago. Then it's on to the postseason.

The only thing certain there for the Riders is that Game 1 of their best-of-five Eastern Conference semifinal series will be Wednesday. The opponent will either be Dubuque or Muskegon.

The location of the game has yet to be determined.

'Nobody knows what's going to happen,” said RoughRiders CEO Jeff Jauch.

That's because going into the weekend, Cedar Rapids has a one-point lead on Dubuque for second place in the East. Youngstown has wrapped the division and Anderson Cup for most regular-season standings points in the league.

Muskegon is fourth, three points back of Dubuque. The second-place team in the division gets first-round home-ice playoff advantage, playing the third-place team.

The fourth-place team opposes Youngstown. That can't be Cedar Rapids because it has the tiebreaker on Muskegon (most wins).

Dubuque finishes the regular season Friday night at home against Tri-City and Saturday night at Waterloo. Muskegon plays Friday and Saturday at Madison.

Did you get all that?

'We just want to be playing well this time of year,” said RoughRiders Coach Mark Carlson, when asked the importance of home-ice advantage. 'You've got to win at home, you've got to win on the road, no matter what. So we're just going into Waterloo tomorrow night and hopefully playing well.”

If the RoughRiders have home ice against Dubuque, Game 1 of their series would be Tuesday night at Dubuque. Games 2 and 3 would be Friday and Saturday (April 17 and 18) in Cedar Rapids, with Game 4 at Dubuque on April 20 and a deciding Game 5 April 22 at Cedar Rapids.

If Dubuque ends up ahead of Cedar Rapids, Game 1 would be Wednesday at The Stable. The rest of the dates would remain the same, just reverse the locations.

If it's the RoughRiders and Muskegon, Games 1 and 2 would be Tuesday and Wednesday in Michigan, with Games 3 through 5 in Cedar Rapids beginning Friday the 17th.

Cedar Rapids could have made things a lot easier on itself had it not lost twice last weekend at Omaha and Tri-City. But Carlson insisted his team did not take a step back overall.

'Absolutely not. One-thousand percent, no,” he said. 'Saturday night (against Tri-City) we played one of our best games of the season. They just capitalized on their chances. I'd say that was probably one of our top five performances of the season. Steps back and forth are not based on winning.”

l Comments: (319) 398-8259; jeff.johnson@thegazette.com