FRIDAY

Cedar Rapids, IA — The Fighting Saints returned to Cedar Rapids for the fourth and final time of the 2022-23 regular season on Friday night in hopes of sweeping the RoughRiders on their own ice.

It was a slow start for the Fighting Saints, not registering a shot on goal in the games opening 10 minutes. The good news for them, the RoughRiders were equally inept and throwing shots on goal, managing a meager two shots in the same 10 minute span. The pace opened up significantly after Noah Powell got into a scuffle with Cedar Rapids' Nick Pierre that drew coincidental minor penalties and brought about a brief four-on-four session.

Cedar Rapids got on the board first on Dylan Hryckowian's 14th goal of the season. Hryckowian pulled the puck out of a scrum along the boards and seeming fooled Marcus Brännman with a quick shot from inside the left circle that went five hole on the Saints' netminder.

The second period was all about the physical element of the game. After an incident at the end of the first period that sent both teams to the locker room in a less than cheery mood, the RoughRiders grabbed two more goals in the second period to open up a 3-0 lead. Andy Moore made it 2-0 after a Fighting Saints turnover on a breakaway chance, then Hryckowian scored his second of the night to open it up to 3-0 off a deflected shot. The Saints petitioned for a review for a high stick but weren't granted one.

In search of a spark, Cole Helm, who has had a tough time finding someone willing to drop the gloves with him all season, got into his first fight of the year after Brendan Fitzerald obliged. The two exchanged haymakers in a nearly half minute fight that concluded with Helm tackling Fitzgerald to the ice. Then, as the horn sounded to end the period, Moore laid an unnecessary hit on Nils Juntorp, Captain Max Burkholder came to the defense of Juntorp and dropped the gloves with Moore as well.

The spark seemed to work. The Fighting Saints grabbed the first two goals of the third period from Shawn O'Donnell and Brayden Morrison to cut the gap to 3-2. O'Donnell's was a tip-in that was reviewed, but the call on the ice stood. For Morrison, it was his fifth since joining the Saints post-christmas and came off a net mouth scramble.

With momentum in hand, an ill timed penalty put the Saints down a man with just over seven minutes to go. The RoughRiders scored with one second left on the powerplay to push the lead to 4-2. Nick Pierre burried an empty net goal four minutes later, and the comeback hopes died.

Brännman swallowed up 23 shots, but it wasn't enough for the Fighting Saints to win. Dubuque also lost the special teams battle going 0-for-5 on the power play and allowing the late powerplay goal to push Cedar Rapids to the brink of victory.

With the win, Cedar Rapids pulled even with the Fighting Saints at 42 points and are tied for fifth place in the eastern conference heading into tomorrow's game.

SATURDAY

Dubuque, IA — In front of the first sell out crowd since March of 2020, the Fighting Saints gave fans another thriller on Saturday night in a come from behind victory over the Cedar Rapids RoughRiders.

The Saints came out with much better jump than they did the night before in the first period that went scoreless. In the second, things turned sour quickly. Cedar Rapids got on the board just 17 seconds into the period after Brännman bobbled a save and Wisdom swatted it out of the air into the net for the games first goal.

It could have gotten even uglier after Cole Helm got called for tripping at 3:52 of the second period, but the Saints penalty kill, which has been better over it's last four games, struck gold. O'Donnell chipped a puck out to center ice and flew behind the defense for Cedar Rapids scoring on a shorthanded breakaway. It was the Saints seventh short handed goal of the season tying the game at 1-1.

The tie was short lived. Ryan Walsh, in a very similar goal to Hryckowian's first the night before, emerged from a scrum with the puck and fooled Brännman again with a low shot that went five hole to give the RoughRiders a 2-1 lead. Their new lead was equally as short lived.

Mikey Burchill scored his 10th of the year to tie the game at 13:59 of the second period. It was all set up by a nice play from captain Riley Stuart. Stuart intercepted a clearing attempt by Cedar Rapids goalie Sam Scopa to regain possession for the Saints. He played pitch and catch with Burkholder at the point and then flung a rink wide pass to Burchill. He whipped a shot on the ice past Scopa who over committed and was caught out of position.

Heading to the third, the game was well within reach for Dubuque. They had given the sell out crowd a good showing so far, but they needed to finish the job.

One thing that was noticible on the ice Saturday that was different from Friday were new line combinations. In the third period, the newly formed trio of James Reeder, Ryan St. Louis, and Jake Sondreal took the ice for an offensive zone face-off. St. Louis won the draw back leading to one of the Saints most dominant offensive zone shifts of the season. They weren't peppering Scopa with shots, but they were dominating possession along the boards and executing an amazing cycle.

For over a minute, they held the offensive zone and grinded down the RoughRiders top scoring line in their own end. Tired from defending, the RoughRiders left Sondreal all alone inside the right wing circle. Reeder fed him a pass and Sondreal threw it at Scopa who made contact with the puck but didn't get enough of it as it ping-ponged it's way into the back of the net.

"We dominated that shift," said Sondreal. "We were moving off each other and moving the puck down low ... Reeder came down the wall and made a nice pass to me in the slot."

The goal gave the Saints their first and only lead of the weekend as it held on as the eventual game winner.

Brännman turned in another solid performance making 20 saves. Both teams were 0-for-4 on the powerplay.