September 25, 2004 - RoughRiders 4 Des Moines 3 (so)

John Grabarek scored the only goal of the shootout as the RoughRiders opened the season with a 4-3 win over the host Des Moines Buccaneers Saturday night.

Grabarek opened the shootout by burying a backhander behind Des Moines goaltender Pat Watson. The RoughRiders were unable to beat Watson on their next four penalty shots, but Riders goaltender Dan Tormey stopped all five of the Bucs’ shootout chances to preserve the win.

For much of the evening it looked unlikely that the RoughRiders would need to go to the shootout to claim a victory. The Riders held a 2-0 lead in the second period and a 3-2 advantage in the third and outshot the Bucs 46-26 on the evening. The Riders even went on the power play with just over 21 seconds left in overtime after Des Moines defenseman Alan Dorich tripped Grabarek, but were unable to convert on the late 4-on-3 advantage.

Before the Riders finally put Des Moines away, the Buccaneers twice came from behind to tie the score, the second time when Chad Rau scored from the doorstep with 4:10 remaining in the third period to even the game at 3-3 and force overtime.

The RoughRiders’ Billy Loupee had snapped a 2-2 tie just over six minutes into the third period with a wrist shot from the top of the left wing faceoff circle. That goal served to stem some of the Bucs’ momentum after Des Moines had battled back to erase a two goal deficit.

Pat Borgestad jump started the Bucs’ revival when he fired the puck past Tormey from the right circle to cut the Riders’ lead to 2-1 with just 1:04 left in the second period. Dustin Fulton wheeled out from behind the net to deadlock the score at two apiece at 4:37 of the third period.

Before Borgestad’s goal the RoughRiders seemed to be in control. Teddy Purcell charged down the left wing to the Des Moines net and tucked the puck home for the RoughRiders’ first goal of the season at 5:48 of the first period. The Riders were on the power play when Zach Miskovic’s blue line blast whistled past Watson to make the score 2-0 at 6:14 of the second.

Box Score