RoughRiders go from outhouse to penthouse with win over Sioux City

CEDAR RAPIDS - You give up 10 goals in a game, come right back and pitch a shutout in the next one. Crazy how it works sometimes.

There was nothing crazy about the Cedar Rapids RoughRiders' performance in a 4-0 win Thursday night over Sioux City at the Ice Arena. They just did virtually everything well.

Which was the exact opposite of last Saturday's 10-1 loss at Green Bay. Coach Mark Carlson preaches to his boys about how never to look behind or ahead, to live, work and play in the moment.

This moment was pretty good.

'Whatever the outcome is of the previous game, if you won, great, if you lost, you've got to come back focused,” said Riders goaltender Ben Blacker. 'You've always got to focus on the next game, no matter what happened the last game.”

This was Blacker's first shutout of the United States Hockey League season and third in his two-year career here. He had to make only 22 saves for it, and not a lot of the extreme-difficulty type.

That's a compliment to his team, which had a lot of jump, managed the puck well and defended well, obviously. Ross Colton and Cal Burke scored in the first period, and Hugh McGing and Mitch Reinke in the second as Cedar Rapids (18-8-3, 39 standings points) ended a two-game losing streak.

'To be honest, it's just the little things,” said Reinke. 'Stick position, picking up sticks, body position, making sure you are on the ‘D' side. Those little things really add up. When you do them, it really makes a difference. Your team can win a lot more games.”

'We were buzzing from the start,” Blacker said. 'We had a lot of guys with their legs going. We had a lot of speed on their players, not giving them a lot of time to do anything with the puck ... They kept a lot of shots to the outside, which made my job really easy.”

Colton took a cross-ice feed from McGing low in the faceoff circle, settled the puck and snapped it past Sioux City goalie Cam Gornet for a 1-0 C.R. lead 3:38 in. It was his team-best 14th goal of the season.

Burke scored on a rebound midway through the period for a multi-goal edge. McGing was sprung down the left wing on a pass from defenseman Jack Ahcan, faked Gornet out of position and stuffed home a shot one handed for a 3-0 lead 11:45 into the second period.

Reinke faked a shot from the right point, skated into the circle and ripped a wrister into the top left corner six minutes later. It was his fourth career USHL goal and his first at home.

The RoughRiders play Friday night at Dubuque, then return home Saturday night to host Team USA to close a three-in-three weekend.

'It's definitely fun to play a lot of games,” Reinke said. 'It's kind of a pro style. Coach always talks about how the RoughRiders are a pro-style team, so this is just part of the process, part of the league.”

l Comments: (319) 398-8259; jeff.johnson@thegazette.com