The Cedar Rapids RoughRiders cooled off the Fargo Force by scoring four times in the first, three times in the second, and twice in the final period to cruise to a 9-6 victory in Fargo, N.D. on Friday night. Jeff Costello had a hat trick and added two assists and Zach Lehrke added three points to pace Cedar Rapids to a victory in the road contest.
Cedar Rapids outscored Fargo, 4-1, in the game’s opening frame. Costello put Cedar Rapids up 1-0 early in the first. Nate Schmidt answered on the power play for the Force to even the game midway through the first period. Then, Lehrke scored on the power play, Cason Hohmann scored even strength, and Michael Parks scored shorthanded in a 6:06 stretch to give Cedar Rapids a 4-1 lead after the first.
Force starting goalie, Ryan Massa, stopped nine of 13 shots in the first period. Massa was then removed in favor of Dayn Belfour for the remainder of the game.
Stu Wilson put the Cedar Rapids Club up by four at 5:27 of the second period. At 8:28, Lehrke scored his second goal of the game on the power play to give Cedar Rapids their biggest lead of the night, at 6-1. Chase Grant and Marek Hrbas scored even strength goals 3:22 apart to close the gap to 6-3.
In the final two minutes of the period, Cedar Rapids scored shorthanded for the second time in the game to make it 7-3. This time it was Jordan DiGiando who found the back of the net. Twenty seconds later, Corey Leivermann found the back of the net for Fargo on the very same power play to make the score 7-4 in favor of Cedar Rapids after two periods.
Colten St. Clair netted the third Fargo power play goal of the game 3:53 into the third period. Overall, Fargo went three-for-four on the power play, but allowed two shorthanded goals. The goal made it 7-5.
Costello pushed the lead back to back to three for Cedar Rapids when he beat Belfour with an assist to Lehrke. With 2:57 to play in the period, Matt Leitner cut the lead back to two and gave the Force another glimmer of hope. However, just 41 seconds later, with the Fargo goalie on the bench, Costello completed the hat trick and the 9-6 win for Cedar Rapids.
Belfour stopped 15 of 19 shots in relief for Fargo. He was credited with the loss in the game. Troy Grosenick stopped 16 of 22 shots to pick up the win for Cedar Rapids. Former Force goalie Cody Campbell did not play for Cedar Rapids in the game, but could play tomorrow night when the Force and RoughRiders match up at 7:05 p.m. at the Urban Plains Center in Fargo.
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