RoughRiders end losing streak

CEDAR RAPIDS - Mac Bennett woke up at 3:45 in order to make Cedar Rapids RoughRiders practice Monday. That's A.M., by the way.

RoughRiders Coach Mark Carlson had his troops on the ice at the Cedar Rapids Ice Arena by 5 after a rough weekend that saw them lose three games in as many nights.

Part of practicing that early was to create some toughness. Another part?

“Because it was necessary,” Carlson said with a Cheshire cat smile.

It worked. The Riders ended a five-game overall losing streak last night with an inspired 6-4 win over the Sioux Falls Stampede before 2,209 fans at The Stable.

“You've got to expect stuff like that almost when you have a tough weekend like we did,” said Bennett, one of several banged-up Riders defenseman who toughed it out and played. “With Coach Carlson, the thing is you can't really read him. We never know what he's going to do, which can be a good thing. It definitely got the message across that he was sending.”

Cedar Rapids (10-9-1, 21 points) rallied from a 3-1 second-period deficit by scoring five straight goals, including a tying power-play blast from Bennett in the final seconds of the second and a go-ahead power-play marker from Eric Robinson early in the third.

It was a short-handed goal from Mike Parks late in the second period that started the rally. Zach Lehrke and Jared Beers followed Bennett and Robinson with goals that put this one away.

Maybe it was the thought of more practices at ungodly hours that prompted this come-from-behind win over a team with the second-best point total in the USHL.

“I just thought we had a lot of people play well tonight, especially some of our first-year guys,” Carlson said. “There were a couple of guys who I thought had their best games so far.”

The Riders played with an edge that hasn't been seen a lot of this season. When you've got guys like 5-foot-7, 155-pounder Cason Hohmann mixing it up with an opponent behind the net after a whistle, you know this team was serious about victory.

Call it part of the maturation process of a team that is extremely young. The only RoughRider who is 20 years old is goaltender Troy Grosenick, who picked up last night's victory in net.

“That's something we don't talk about in the room,” Carlson said. “But we're pretty darned young ... Sometimes patience is a good thing.”

The Riders play tonight at Des Moines, then host Green Bay on Sunday afternoon at 4.

Goalie Eric Rohrkemper has joined the Riders from Topeka of the North American Hockey League. Rohrkemper, 18, was 6-0-1 with a 2.30 goals against average and .886 save percentage for Topeka. He was on the Riders' affiliate roster.

Carlson said Rohrkemper is here on a permanent basis. That gives the Riders three goalies, including Matt Hemingway, who was a scratch Friday night.

The coach said it remains to be seen how the goaltending situation will play itself out.

The Riders had only two defensemen (Beers,

Andy Simpson) practice most of the week because of injuries.

Steven Hensley remains out with an injured shoulder, though he could play sometime this weekend, Carlson said.