Ice win in shootout

An old cliche is that a two-goal lead is the most dangerous lead in hockey.

For the third straight Indiana Ice game, a team rallied from a two-goal third-period lead -- last weekend, the Ice lost one and rallied back from a two-goal deficit, but dropped both games. Friday in Cedar Rapids, the Ice built a quick two-goal lead, then saw the RoughRiders tie the game in the closing minutes.

But this time, Cody Gyllyng and Daniil Tarasov scored in the shootout and Jon Gillies stopped both Riders shooters to deliver a 3-2 victory on the road.

The Ice improved to 3-0-0 against Cedar Rapids this year and 8-3-2 on the season in total. The Ice are the only visiting team to win in the Cedar Rapids rink -- winning the season opener in OT and now Friday's victory.

All of the scoring happened in the third, as Gillies stopped 15 shots and CR's Matt McNeely stopped 21 Ice missives through two periods. The Ice killed two penalties, the Riders one in the first 40.

With the Ice on their second power play thanks to a high-sticking minor to CR's Blake Butzow, Tarasov buried a shot to give the Ice a 1-0 lead at 4:47 of the third on assists from Ryan Obuchowski and Robbie Baillargeon -- the latter extending his scoring streak to five games with the helper. It was Tarasov's ninth goal of the year in 13 games.

Just 19 seconds later, Ice defenseman Ian Spencer scored from Emil Romig.

But Cedar Rapids stormed back, scoring twice in the final five minutes, first on a rebound goal by Nathan Widman with 4:29 to play and then on a tally by Anders Schultz 2:06 later.

That set up OT, where both teams got 2 shots. Gillies stopped Stu Wilson and Riley Bourbonnais, while Tarasov and Gyllyng scored for the Ice.

The Ice welcomed Sean Kuraly back to the lineup after he spent two weeks representing the United States and the USHL in the World Junior A Challenge. They played without forward Drew Smolczynski, who was serving a one-game suspension, and will be eligible to return to the lineup Saturday at Waterloo.

The victory keeps the Ice in a third-place tie with Youngstown at 18 points, one back of second-place Dubuque. Green Bay leads the division with 22 points.

3 stars
1. Daniil Tarasov (Ice) goal, GWG in shootout
2. Anders Schultz (CR), game-tying goal
3. Gerald Mayhew (CR), 2 assists

Next up: at Waterloo (Saturday, 8 p.m.)