Who’s in net?

CEDAR RAPIDS - The Cedar Rapids RoughRiders will indeed have a goaltender start Game 1 of their United States Hockey League playoff series Tuesday night against Dubuque. But which one will it be?

RoughRiders Coach Mark Carlson isn't saying, at least publicly.

'We'll see,” Carlson said with a cagy smile.

It smacks of some gamesmanship, but Carlson really does have a major decision on his hands. Both Ben Blacker and Ryan Larkin are capable guys, have similar statistics and have split net time fairly evenly the last half of the season and against Dubuque.

Don't read into Blacker's name being listed first here, by the way. As Carlson said, his starter is a secret.

'We're just looking forward to Tuesday, you know?” he said after practice Monday afternoon. 'We have one game here, and we are focusing on that game ... Any time you are playing hockey when it's 70 degrees, that's a good sign.”

The RoughRiders won their regular-season finale in come-from-behind style last Saturday against Chicago to break a three-game losing streak and earn home-ice advantage in this best-of-five series. They finished one standings point ahead of Dubuque, in second place in the Eastern Conference.

The Fighting Saints won six of eight games against Cedar Rapids, however. And if you throw out a 6-2 win in the season opener way back in October for the RoughRiders, they scored just nine times in the last seven games between the teams.

'Zero significance with that,” Carlson said. 'I thought we played a lot of good hockey against them, and sometimes the score didn't go our way. They've got a good club, there is no question about that. But this is the playoffs.”

This is an interesting matchup between a Cedar Rapids team that likes to play uptempo hockey and a Dubuque club that is more defensive in its approach. Dubuque eliminated Cedar Rapids in the first round of last season's playoffs.

'I don't think we're looking backwards at all right now,” said Riders forward Andrew Gaus. 'The only game we're focusing on is Tuesday. We've just got to win three here, so losing six of eight in the regular season doesn't matter to us. We're just worried about Tuesday night, and nothing besides that.”

Dubuque knows its goaltender will be Jacob Nehama. He led the USHL with 29 victories, went 5-1 against Cedar Rapids and gave up eight goals in six starts.

Larkin played in 28 games for the Riders, finishing 15-10 with a 2.43 goals against average and .919 save percentage. Blacker played in 36 games, going 24-11 with a 2.73 GAA and .913 save percentage.

Games 2 and 3 of this series are Friday and Saturday nights, respectively, at The Stable. Game 4 would be Monday at Dubuque and Game 5 Wednesday at Cedar Rapids.

'i just think it's two good hockey teams,” Gaus said. 'Obviously there is a good rivalry there. But once the puck drops, it's just going to be another hockey game. We just need to play with a lot of speed and passion, and we'll be fine.”

'They're a good team, we're a good team,” said Riders co-captain Andrew Oglevie. 'If we play like we did (Saturday), play like the brothers we played like (Saturday), we'll do good things.”

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