Backup goaltender Zack LaRocque stars in starting role for Cedar Rapids RoughRiders

SIOUX CITY - Zack LaRocque capped a great weekend of relief goaltending, making 30 saves for a shutout in the Cedar Rapids RoughRiders' final regular-season game Saturday night, a 5-0 dropping of the Sioux City Musketeers.

LaRocque has barely played this season since coming to the team in September to replace injured tender Ryan Larkin. But the absence of regular goalie Ben Blacker due to a concussion suffered in a game last Saturday against Dubuque made LaRocque the man this weekend.

He allowed just two goals in C.R.'s 3-2 win Friday night, then picked up his second career shutout in the United States Hockey League.

Winger Ross Colton scored one of the five RoughRiders goals, setting the club's single-season goal-scoring record with his 35th. It came late in the second period and gave the Riders a 3-0 lead.

Will Garin scored 2:07 into the game to get Cedar Rapids out front early. Defenseman Jack Ahcan's power-play goal in the second made it a 2-0 lead.

John Snodgrass and Hugh McGing had third-period goals for the RoughRiders, who closed the regular season with a spectacular 40-15-5 record and 85 standings points. The club wrapped up the USHL's Anderson Cup for most standings points Friday night. Cedar Rapids draws the Bloomington Thunder in the Eastern Conference semifinals. The first two games of the best-of-5 series are Friday and Saturday at the Cedar Rapids Ice Arena, with the series shifting the following weekend to Bloomington.

A deciding Game 5 would be back in Cedar Rapids.

The other Eastern Conference semifinal series features Green Bay and Dubuque, with Green Bay having home-ice advantage. In the Western Conference, the Tri-City Storm are the top seed and will play Sioux Falls in the semifinals, with Lincoln and Waterloo the other series.