Win streak makes Riders coaches dancin' happy

You can't say Mark Carlson and Jeff Dwyer renege on their bets.

The Cedar Rapids RoughRiders coaches told their hockey team in December that if it won six games in a row at any point this USHL season, they would dance in the locker room in celebration. Win number six came last Saturday night, 3-2 in a shootout at Omaha.

Yes, Carlson and Dwyer paid up.

"It was unbelievable," said RoughRiders defenseman Mac Bennett. "Probably the highlight of the season so far."

"Unreal," added RoughRiders forward Jeff Costello. "I've never seen anything like it. So cool."

The players cranked up the volume on Jay-Z and Alicia Keys' "Empire State of Mind" and watched their coaches have what amounted to a simultaneous dance-off. Apparently Carlson was the decided winner.

"Coach Dwyer had no upper body movement at all," critiqued Bennett. "He was just shaking his hips. Pretty bad."

"Coach Carlson had some grooves going," said RoughRiders forward Peter Sakaris. "He had some serious moves."

Carlson laughed when informed what his players said.

"I think they're just being kind saying I had moves," he said.

The players joked that a 12-game win streak might have to lead to a coaches' striptease on the ice or something. Think the final shots of the classic hockey movie "Slap Shot."

And if you think 12 victories in a row are impossible, keep in mind the USHL's Green Bay Gamblers are on a 14-game win streak.

PRACTICE PROBLEMS

The RoughRiders had to travel all the way to the iWireless Center in Moline, Ill., last Thursday afternoon to get their practice in. Both sheets of ice at the Cedar Rapids Ice Arena were being for the Midwestern & Pacific Coast Synchronized Skating Sectional Championships.

The rink at Coral Ridge Mall in Coralville also was unavailable because of the synchronized skating competition.

"It's always nice going to places like that," Carlson said of the iWireless Center, which housed the AHL's Quad City Flames last season and the IHL's Quad City Mallards this season. Former RoughRider Shane Lovdahl plays for the Mallards.

COSTELLO BACK IN

Captain Jeff Costello will be back in the lineup tonight at

Chicago after missing the Omaha game last weekend because of a USHL-mandated one-game suspension for what he said was a checking from behind penalty in a recent game.