September 30, 2004 - RoughRiders 2 Chicago 1

Alex Stalock made 19 saves in his USHL debut and Justin Abdelkader and Matt Vokes provided the Cedar Rapids goals as the RoughRiders defeated the host Chicago Steel 2-1 Thursday night.

Abdelkader broke a scoreless deadlock at 15:32 of the second period with his first USHL goal. He latched onto a Rob Ricci feed in the left wing faceoff circle and charged into the goalmouth to sweep the puck past Chicago netminder Shane Connelly (23 saves).

The RoughRiders extended the lead to 2-0 just over two minutes into the third period as Vokes charged down the right wing boards, barreled in on Connelly and jammed the puck home from the doorstep.

Stalock shutout Chicago for better than 50 minutes before the Steel finally broke through midway through the third period while shorthanded. Stalock left the crease to play a loose puck in the slot but could not get it away cleanly, allowing the Steel’s T.J. Fox to wrist the puck into the untended net.

Box Score