THIS WEEK
Friday, February 9, 6:05PM
@ Pepsi Coliseum, Indianapolis
Cedar Rapids RoughRiders vs. Indiana Ice
Saturday, February 10,
6:05PM @ Conseco Fieldhouse, Indianapolis
Cedar Rapids RoughRiders vs. Indiana Ice
RECORDS
Cedar Rapids
23-12-2, 48
points, 2nd place East Division
Indiana
19-13-4, 42
points, 3rd place East Division
COMING IN
The RoughRiders earned three of a possible four points last
weekend. The Riders picked up one point
for a 5-4 shootout loss at Des Moines
last Friday and dropped the Ohio Junior Blue Jackets 7-3 last Saturday night.
The Riders are one point behind Waterloo in the race for
the top spot both in the league and in the East Division. The Black Hawks have two games in hand on the
Riders.
The Riders are the top scoring team
in the United States Hockey League. Cedar Rapids averages 4.2
goals per game.
Jacob Cepis (25-27-52) remains the
league leader in goals and points and is also tied for seventh in assists.
Rider goaltender Kent Patterson has
gone 8-2-1 in his last 12 games, posting a 2.84 goals against average, a .921 save
percentage and one shutout during that stretch.
The Riders return to the road this
weekend having gone unbeaten in regulation over their last four away games
(3-0-1). Starting Friday, the Riders
will play a total of three road games in five days. Following their weekend in Indianapolis,
the Riders will visit Lincoln
next Tuesday.
While this Friday night’s game will
be played at Pepsi Coliseum, the Ice’s full time home, this Saturday evening’s
contest will be played at 18,345-seat Conseco Fieldhouse. The Ice this season will play a total of four
games at Conseco, the home of the National Basketball Association’s Indiana
Pacers
The Ice split a home-and-home series with Green Bay last weekend. Indiana
edged the Gamblers 4-3 last Friday in Green
Bay but fell 7-5 one night later on home ice.
The Ice are six games over .500
despite having been outscored 119-115 this season.
Though the Ice have won just one of
their last four home games (1-2-1), Indiana
boasts the league’s second best home record (13-4-2) on the season.
The Ice’s power play, while solid
overall (18.3 percent), is particularly dangerous at home, where Indiana has converted on
21.7 percent of its advantages.
Indiana is the most penalized team in the
USHL. Ice players spend an average of 31.5
minutes per game in the box.
RECENT ACTION
Cedar Rapids
Friday, February 2: Des Moines
5 Cedar
Rapids 4 (SO)
Des Moines outscored the Riders 4-3 in the
shootout after overtime ended with the score tied at four. Robin Bergman scored a pair of goals for the
Riders while Brett Dickinson and Danny Dries scored one apiece.
Saturday, February 3: Cedar Rapids 7 Ohio
3
The Riders
took control of the game in the first period by scoring four times in three
minutes and twenty-seven seconds. Doug
Jones, David Boehm, Mike Seidel (who had two goals on the night) and Danny
Dries provided the goals during that onslaught.
Indiana
Friday, February 2: Indiana 4 Green
Bay 3
Eric
Kattelus’s hat trick spurred the Ice to the win.
Saturday, February 3: Green Bay
7 Indiana
5
The Ice
rallied from a 5-1 third period deficit to tie the game at five only for the
Gamblers to respond with two late goals.
Greg Squires paced the Ice with one goal and two assists, while John
Kemp, Eric Miller and Garrett Roe each notched one goal and one assist.
TOP POINT SCORERS
Cedar Rapids GP G A PTS
Jacob Cepis 36 25 27 52
Pat Cannone 36 12 21 33
Robin
Bergman 29 17 14 31
Kevin Wehrs 37 7 22 29
Rob Bordson 29 6 22 28
Indiana GP G A PTS
Garrett Roe 34 17 27 44
John Kemp 34 10 31 41
Jake Skjodt 34 18 10 28
Mike
Phillippi 33 4 23 27
Eric
Kattelus 28 13 8 21
LEADERS
Cedar Rapids
Goals- Jacob Cepis (25)
Assists- Jacob Cepis (27)
Points- Jacob Cepis (52)
Plus/Minus- Pat Cannone (+12)
Penalty Minutes- Ian Slater (76)
Power Play Goals- Robin Bergman (11)
Shorthanded Goals- Aaron Bogosian (2)
Indiana
Goals- Jake Skjodt (18)
Assists- John Kemp (31)
Points- Garrett Roe (44)
Plus/Minus- Mike Phillipi (+9)
Penalty Minutes- Ron Cramer (106)
Power Play Goals- Jake Skjodt (12)
Shorthanded Goals- Greg Squires (3)
WHO’S HOT
Cedar Rapids
Rob Bordson: four game point-scoring streak (3-3-6)…nine
points (three goals, six assists) in his last eight games
Jacob Cepis: five points (one goal, four assists)
in his last three games…19 points (eight goals, 11 assists) in his last
11 games
Mike Seidel: six points (two goals, four assists)
in two games last weekend
Kent Patterson: 8-2-1 with a 2.84 goals against
average, a .921 save percentage and one shutout in his last 12 games
Indiana
Ron Cramer: five points (two goals, three
assists) in his last five games
Eric Olimb: seven points (two goals, five
assists) in his last five games
Garrett Roe: 11 points (three goals, eight
assists) in his last seven games
Greg Squires: six points (three goals, three
assists) in his last five games
GOALTENDERS
Cedar Rapids GP MIN GAA W-L-SOL SO SPCT
Kent
Patterson 20 1157:28 3.06 14-4-1 1 .909
Richard
Bachman 12 721:21 3.41 6-5-1 1 .899
Indiana GP MIN GAA W-L-SOL SO SPCT
Alex Kangas 27 1548:46 2.98 14-9-4 1 .908
Cody
Reichard 12 624:47 3.55 5-4-0 0 .891
WIN-LOSS
Cedar Rapids Indiana
Home: 13-7-0 Home: 13-4-2
Away: 10-5-2 Away: 6-9-2
vs. East:
18-4-0 vs.
East: 11-7-2
vs. West:
5-8-2 vs. West: 8-6-2
GOALS
Cedar Rapids Indiana
Goals For:
4.19 (1) Goals
For: 3.19 (8)
Goals Against:
3.41 (9) Goals Against: 3.31 (7)
SPECIAL TEAMS
Cedar Rapids Indiana
Power Play: 19.3 53/274 (3) Power Play: 18.3 45/246
(4)
Penalty Kill:
82.7 36/208 (9) Penalty Kill: 85.3 42/285 (3)
Shorthanded Goals For: 8 Shorthanded Goals For: 9
Shorthanded Goals Against:
4 Shorthanded Goals Against: 2
SEASON SERIES
Cedar Rapids vs. Indiana
12/1/06 Indiana
5 at Cedar Rapids
3
1/6/07 Cedar Rapids
4 at Indiana
3 (OT)
2/9/07 Cedar Rapids
at Indiana
2/10/07 Cedar Rapids
at Indiana
2/21/07 Indiana
at Cedar Rapids
4/7/07 Indiana
at Cedar Rapids
4/13/07 Cedar Rapids
at Indiana
GP W-L-SOL PTS H A OPP
REC OPP PTS
2006-07 2 1-1-0 2 0-1-0 1-0-0 1-0-1 3
TOTALS 17 14-3-0 28 6-3-0 8-0-0 3-12-2 8
Top Point
Scorers/Season Series
Cedar Rapids GP G A PTS
Jacob Cepis 2 2 1 3
Robin
Bergman 2 2 1 3
David Boehm 2 1 1 2
Indiana GP G A PTS
John Kemp 2 0 5 5
Jake Skjodt 2 3 0 3
(two players tied with two points)
Cedar Rapids vs. Indiana
Cedar Rapids GP MIN GAA W-L-SOL SO SPCT
Richard
Bachman 2 120:40 3.48 1-1-0 0 .875
Indiana GP MIN GAA W-L-SOL SO SPCT
Alex Kangas 2 121:14 3.46 1-0-1 0 .903
COACHES
Cedar Rapids
Mark Carlson, 8th year (241-171-40)
Mark Carlson has
been the RoughRiders’ coach since the team arrived in Cedar Rapids in 1999. In 2005-06 he led the Riders to their second
straight East Division title.
He has also piloted the Riders to six straight winning
seasons and six straight Clark Cup playoff berths. The Riders are one of just two USHL teams to
have reached the postseason each of the last six years.
The Riders are the only team to have advanced at least as
far as the Clark Cup semi-finals/East Division finals each of the last two
springs and four of the last five years.
On December 3, 2005 Carlson
picked up his two hundredth career coaching win as the Riders defeated Omaha 2-1 in a
shootout. Carlson’s
RoughRiders went 218-159-38 in his first seven seasons with the club.
The high point of his tenure was leading the
RoughRiders to the first Clark Cup (playoff) title in team history along with a
share of the Anderson Cup regular season title and the East Division title in
2004-05. The Riders went 42-13-5 during
the regular season- the best record in club history- and swept through the
first two rounds of the playoffs before defeating Sioux City three games to two in the finals.
For his efforts, Carlson was named
the 2004-05 USHL Coach of the Year.
Carlson, a native of Lawrenceville, New
Jersey, is a graduate of the University of
Massachusetts-Lowell where he earned a B.S. in Business Administration and
Marketing. Also while at Lowell,
Carlson skated in the highly
competitive Hockey East conference as a forward on the River Hawks’ hockey
team. His on-ice talent was recognized even before he arrived in Lowell when he was taken
in the 1987 National Hockey League draft by the Pittsburgh Penguins.
After graduating from UML, Carlson
spent one season as an assistant coach at Lawrenceville
School before returning to Lowell to serve as an
assistant to head coach Bruce Crowder. After helping the River Hawks to a berth
in the 1996 NCAA tournament, Carlson
spent another three seasons beside Crowder as an assistant at Northeastern University
in Boston,
where he also acted as recruiting coordinator. He earned a master’s degree in
education from N.U.
During his time at N.U. Carlson
also acted as recruiting coordinator.
Among those he recruited for the Huskies were Jim Fahey, who now skates
for the National Hockey League’s San Jose Sharks,
and Mike Ryan, who would later be the top draft pick of the NHL’s Dallas Stars.
Indiana
Jack Bowkus, 2nd year (31-24-5)
Jack Bowkus replaced Dean Grillo as Indiana head coach on January 25, 2006 and
guided the Ice to a 12-11-1 record and a berth in the 2006 Clark Cup
playoffs. Bowkus joined the Indiana staff at the
start of the 2005-06 season as an assistant after coaching in the California
Wave youth program for eight years. As a
player, Bowkus skated briefly for the USHL’s Sioux City Musketeers before
spending four seasons (1984-88) with the Saskatoon Blades of the major junior
Western Hockey League.
HISTORY
Last season was the Riders’ third
straight 30-win campaign and also the fifth time in the last six years that the
Riders have picked up at least 30 victories.
The Riders went 42-13-5 on the road over the last two
seasons combined. The Riders’ road
record was superior to their home record both last season season and in
2004-05.
The Riders are, along with the Omaha Lancers, one of just
two teams who have reached the playoffs each of the last six years. As all 12 USHL teams will qualify for the postseason
this year, that streak will be stretch to seven consecutive playoff berths in
April.
The Riders are the only USHL team to advance at least as far
as the division finals each of the last two years. Furthermore, Cedar Rapids is also the
only team to reach the league’s final four in four of the last five
years. Only one team (Sioux City)
has even reached the second round three times in the last five years.
The Ice moved to Indiana from Danville
following the 2003-04 season.
The Riders eliminated
Indiana in
the first round of the Clark Cup playoffs in both 2005 and 2006.
COLLEGE COMMITMENTS
Cedar Rapids (12)
Richard
Bachman (Colorado College), Robin Bergman (Notre Dame), David Boehm
(Massachusetts), Aaron Bogosian (St. Lawrence), Rob Bordson (Minnesota-Duluth),
Jacob Cepis (Bowling Green), Brett Dickinson (Quinnipiac), Evan Stephens
(Dartmouth), Matt Tomassoni (Miami of Ohio), Kevin Wehrs (Minnesota), Scott
Wietecha (Ferris State), Tommy Wingels (Miami of Ohio)
Indiana (10)
Nick Bailen
(Bowling Green), Michael Del Mauro (Harvard), Alex Kangas (Minnesota), Eric
Kattelus (Michigan Tech), John Kemp (Nebraska-Omaha), Eric Olimb
(Nebraska-Olimb), Brett Peterson (Minnesota State-Mankato), Mike Phillipi
(Nebraska-Omaha), Garrett Roe (St. Cloud State), Jake Skjodt (Nebraska-Omaha)
NHL DRAFT PICKS
Cedar Rapids Year Round Overall Team
Sergei
Kolosov 2004 5th 151 Detroit
Richard
Bachman 2006 4th 120 Dallas
Indiana Year Round Overall Team
Alex Kangas 2006 5th 135 Atlanta
Brent Gwidt 2006 6th 157 Washington
ROUGHRIDER ALUMNI
Division
I GP G A PTS
Justin
Abdelkader (Michigan State/sophomore) 23 8 11 19
Phil
Axtell (Michigan
Tech/freshman) 25 2 5 7
Casey
Bickley (Army/senior) 27 5 10 15
James
Brannigan (Colorado College/junior) 20 0 4 4
Jamie
Carroll (Providence/senior) 21 3 2 5
Greg
Collins (New Hampshire/sophomore) 20 2 3 5
Chad
Costello (Northeastern/freshman) 25 10 10 20
Ray
Eichenlaub (Miami
of Ohio/sophomore) 32 4 13 17
Jon
Grabarek (Wayne State/sophomore) 18 2 4 6
Jordy
Hart (Merrimack/junior) 12 1 0 1
Bryan
Horan (Providence/senior) 25 2 2 4
Tyler
Howells (Michigan State/senior) 27 3 14 17
Ray
Kaunisto (Northern Michigan/freshman) 32 2 0 2
Steven
Kaunisto (Lake Superior State/freshman) 29 1 5 6
Billy
Loupee (Miami
of Ohio/sophomore) 26 1 3 4
Shane
Lovdahl (Alaska-Anchorage/sophomore) 18 0 4 4
Alec
Martinez (Miami
of Ohio/sophomore) 32 8 11 19
Zach
Miskovic (St. Lawrence/sophomore) 28 2 6 8
Sean
Muncy (Brown/sophomore) 23 7 6 13
Brandon
Naurato (Michigan/sophomore) 29 10 9 19
Matt
Olinger (Wisconsin/senior) 28 0 1 1
Zach
Pearson (Ferris State/senior) 28 8 16 24
Derek
Peltier (Minnesota/junior) 31 4 6 10
Nate
Perkovich (Lake Superior State/freshman) 29 11 6 17
Jordan
Pietrus (Brown/freshman) 12 0 2 2
Ted
Purcell (Maine/freshman) 27 14 18 32
Nick
Sellers (Lake Superior State/freshman) 18 3 1 4
Chris
Snavely (Michigan State/senior) 13 0 4 4
Gary
Steffes (Miami
of Ohio/freshman) 32 5 1 6
David
Strathman (Northeastern/freshman) 21 2 2 4
Brandon
Svendsen (Bowling Green/sophomore) 28 5 7 12
Shawn
Vinz (New Hampshire/senior) 25 3 1 4
Matt
Vokes (Brown/sophomore) 23 7 6 13
Chase
Watson (Providence/senior) 19 1 2 3
GP G A PTS
Mark
Zarbo (Bentley/freshman) 27 1 6 7
GP W-L-T GAA SV% SO
Joe
Fallon (Vermont/junior) 25 14-8-3 1.66 .927 5
Bobby
Goepfert (St. Cloud State/senior) 21 12-5-4 2.15 .928 3
Alex
Stalock (Minnesota-Duluth/freshman) 23 5-14-3 3.34 .881 1
Dan
Tormey (Minnesota State-Mankato/sophomore) 10 2-7-0 4.28 .856 0
Division
III GP G A PTS
Brett
Beckfeld (Wisconsin-Stevens Point/sophomore) 21 9 7 16
T.J.
Dahl (Wisconsin-River Falls/junior) 23 11 31 42
Professional GP G A PTS +/-
P.J.
Atherton (Johnstown/ECHL) 38 4 19 23 -6
Rico
Fatticci (Tulsa/CHL)
29 2 10 12 +2
Mike
Manley (Trenton/ECHL) 37 3 5 8 -7
Dave
Moss (Calgary/NHL) 20 5 4 9 +4
Danny
O’Brien (Fresno/ECHL) 1 0 0 0 0
Alexander
Valentin (Kalamazoo/UHL) 38 2 4 6 -9
UPCOMING EVENTS
Break out your light saber and
you’ll fit right in on Star Wars Night at the ice arena- Friday, February
16. Darth Vader, Luke Skywalker and
their intergalactic pals will be on hand as the RoughRiders battle the Des
Moines Buccaneers.
On Saturday, February 17, Nick Jr.’s
Dora the Explorer will be sure to bring smiles to the faces of younger fans
during the Riders’ game against the Omaha Lancers.
COMMUNITY
RoughRiders players will speak to
students at Madison Elementary on Monday, February 12 at 10:15AM.
RoughRiders mascot Ricochet will have the chance to indulge
his sweet tooth this Saturday from 1:00 to 3:00PM when he welcomes customers to
the grand opening of the new Cold Stone Creamery on 1st Avenue NE next to Dick’s
Sporting Goods.
On Saturday, February 17, from 9:00
to 10:00AM Ricochet will lend his support to a worthy cause as he takes part in
the “Movin’ For McCauley” Walk to benefit the Catherine McCauley Center for
Women. The McCauley Center
is located at 866 Fourth Avenue
SW.
Richochet will lend a hoof to the
fight against diabetes when he joins the Walk for Diabetes at Westdale Mall on
Saturday, February 24 from 9:00 to 11:00AM.
TICKETS
The RoughRiders are again this season offering the Flex
Plan, which enables fans to purchase books of ten ticket vouchers that can be
redeemed in any quantity for any regular season home game during normal box
office hours. Fans who purchase the flex plan receive a
significant discount ($21 off game day ticket prices) by investing in bulk
tickets and can still enjoy the games of their choice in the seats they want.
Single game tickets are now on sale. Tickets can be
purchased in person at the Cedar Rapids Ice Arena ticket office, over the phone
at (319) 261-4625 or on line at www.roughridershockey.com. The ticket office is open from noon to 5:00PM
on weekdays and from noon through the end of the second period on game
days. Ticket prices range from $7 to $17
in advance and from $8 to $18 on game days.
ON THE AIR/ON LINE
RoughRiders regular
season and playoff games are broadcast on AM-1360 The Fan in Cedar Rapids.
Courtesy of B2 Networks, free audio webcasts of Riders games will also
be available at www.roughridershockey.com.
Brian Lavelle provides
play-by-play.
The RoughRiders and B2 have also teamed up to offer pay-per-view video webcasts of all RoughRiders
games. Fans can click on the “Watch
RoughRiders’ Games Live” icon at www.roughridershockey.com to watch and listen
to the game. The broadcast is available
to fans with a high speed DSL or cable modem internet connection. The charge for video webcasts is $6 per game.
The RoughRiders Coach’s Show with Mark Carlson
airs Wednesday nights at 6:00 live from Union Station on 16th Avenue SW in Cedar Rapids on AM-1360
The Fan.
Real time
updates of all USHL games are available on line at www.pointstreak.com/prostats.