October 8, 2004 - Lincoln 5 RoughRiders 4 (so)

John Swanson’s deciding penalty shot in the eighth round of the shootout gave the host Lincoln Stars a 5-4 win over the RoughRiders Friday night. The RoughRiders did earn one point for the shootout loss.

After Ted Purcell and Matt Vokes scored for the RoughRiders and Brock Trotter and Patrick Valcak converted their penaly shots for the Stars, the shootout was deadlocked at two apiece until Swanson fired a backhander between Rider goaltender Dan Tormey’s pads to give the Stars the win.

The RoughRiders held a 4-2 third period lead, but the Stars outshot the Riders 15-6 in the third en route to erasing the deficit. Just 23 seconds after Justin Abdelkader steered the puck in from the doorstep to give the Riders the 4-2 edge at 5:49 of the third, John Vadnais rolled the puck between Tormey’s pads to bring the Stars back within one. Lincoln knotted the score at four when Valcak buried a Dan Reidel centering pass from point blank range at 12:52.

The Riders entered the third period up 3-1 before a Jared Boll wrist shot narrowed the lead to a single goal at 1:20 of the third.

The Riders had temporarily taken command of the game by exploding for three second period goals in a span of just one minute thirty four seconds. Greg Collins started the onslaught by charging into the left wing circle and beating Lincoln goaltender Jordan Pearce with a wrister. That goal tied that game at one. Just 52 seconds elapsed before the Riders took their first lead of the night as Erik Felde jammed the puck just over the goal line to break the tie. Brandon Svendsen charged into the goal mouth and rifled a Collins feed under the crossbar to extend the Cedar Rapids lead to 3-1 at 9:04.

The second period fireworks actually started with a Stars goal as Erik Condra snapped the puck just inside the post from the high slot to snap a scoreless tie a mere 39 seconds into the period.