RoughRiders beat Team USA, 7-2

He claims he's not really a point getter. The statistics say otherwise.

Bryce Aneloski continued his torrid early season offensive play last night, recording a power-play hat trick and five points in the Cedar Rapids RoughRiders' 7-2 win over the U.S. National 17-Under Team at the Cedar Rapids Ice Arena.

A third-year guy, Aneloski already has as many points (12) and twice as many goals (6) as he did all last season in 38 games. The 19-year-old from Pekin, Ill., played one semester last year at Providence College before deciding to transfer and come back to Cedar Rapids.

It appears some school is going to get quite a defenseman.

“I don't know what to say. I had a good night tonight,” Aneloski said. “I had some good shots, and they went in. It was nothing I did differently tonight.”

Cedar Rapids (6-1) went a torrid 5 for 6 with the man advantage, getting two other power-play goals from Zach Lehrke. Cason Hohmann also scored his first USHL goal, and Jared Beers added considerable insult to injury with a late tally that capped a three-goal third period.

The RoughRiders outshot Team USA in the third, 18-2, and for the game, 45-24. Troy Grosenick improved to 5-1 with the win in net.

“We continue to kind of tinker with the power play,” Riders Coach Mark Carlson said. “We've got one unit going pretty good there right now. We've got lots of guys who can play on the other (power play) unit. We'll continue to look at that a little bit.”

Aneloski started the scoring with a right point blast that beat Team USA goalie Matt McNeely at 10:07 of the first period. He scored back to back in the third, taking a backdoor feed from Jayson Megna and scoring at 7:12 and finishing his hat trick with another blast from the high slot at 15:10.

McNeely robbed him of a potential fourth goal late in the first, though Lehrke pumped home the rebound of his shot.

“He's playing well,” Carlson said. “He has grown as a player, he has grown as a person. We've always known he could contribute offensively. He worked so hard on his conditioning over the summer. It's very, very early, and he'll tell you that. But he's off to a good start.”

Aneloski said he lost 10 pounds in the off-season, accomplished by changing his diet and jogging three miles daily. It's working.

“Like I said, I'm just getting lucky,” he said. “Everything is going in right now.”

The Riders host Lincoln Sunday afternoon at 4.

There were malfunctions galore so far at the Cedar Rapids Ice Arena. No audio for one thing. For two, the building's smoke alarm went off because of excessive smoke from the RoughRiders' entrance.

RoughRiders scratches were

Chad Hudson,

Steven Collins,

Peter Sakaris,

Tom Mahoney and

Steven Hensley. Defenseman

Nolan Zajac is back in the lineup after missing four games with a knee injury.