RoughRiders’ LaRocque recovers from Green Bay nightmare for first USHL shutout

CEDAR RAPIDS - There was the usual team mob behind the net that goes on immediately following a successful game. But more than a few Cedar Rapids RoughRiders returned after a salute to the fans Saturday night at the Cedar Rapids Ice Arena to hug it up with their goaltender.

Zach LaRocque hasn't played much since coming to town in October. This was just his third game.

His second was in a relief appearance last weekend at Green Bay, and he gave up goals on the first four shots he faced as part of a 10-1 loss. Big-time ouch there.

A 5-0 shutout of the United States National Team Development Program U17 team was quite the performance and quite the redemption, for him and his club.

'I don't have a lot of words to describe it,” LaRocque said of his first United States Hockey League shutout. 'It's a great feeling. Just a great way to end the weekend, with six points. I can't say enough about what my defense did for me in that game. Just a huge way to end the weekend.”

You can say that again. Cedar Rapids picked up three victories in as many nights to stay a single standings point behind Dubuque in the Eastern Conference standings.

The Riders are 20-8-3 for 43 points. They beat Sioux City on Thursday night and ended Dubuque's 10-game win streak Friday night.

'I just think we kept working tonight,” said Riders Coach Mark Carlson. 'We weren't particularly sharp there for some of the game, but that's understandable. We're grinding away here with three games in three nights, and three games last week. So we've had an absolute ton of games here. Credit our guys for sticking with it. The third period was our best, and Rocky was real good in the cage. We did a good job.”

LaRocque wasn't tested a ton, making 22 saves, but was there whenever he was tested.

'We just had to forget about it, shut it out as a fluke game,” LaRocque said of last week. 'That's going to happen at least once in your season. We just had to forget about it. Everyone worked their ass off in practice this week, and we just answered and had a huge weekend this weekend.”

Cal Burke gave Cedar Rapids a 1-0 lead with a goal midway through the first period that they call a 'snipe” in hocky lingo. He picked up the puck between his blue line and the center red line, rushing down right wing and then letting go with a shot from a bad angle that was perfectly placed into the top left corner of the net.

Zac Robbins drew the lone assist on the goal, which came at 13:04. A Notre Dame commit, Burke has goals in three straight games and has scored in four of his last seven.

The RoughRiders stashed this one away with four more goals in the third period. Tyler Irvine made it a 2-0 game by poking home a loose puck in the crease at the 2:51 mark, Jacob Hayhurst scored on a one-timer at 9:10, then Ross Colton increased his team-leading goal output to 18 with a pair, including a short-handed empty netter with 10.3 seconds left.

The RoughRiders have yet another three-in-three weekend upcoming. They host Green Bay on Friday, then Chicago on Saturday, before hitting the bus for a game at Madison the following afternoon.

Cedar Rapids players Colton, Matt Filipe, Matt Gosiewski and Sam Sternschein will play Tuesday night in the USHL/NHL Top Prospects Game at Omaha, Neb.

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