Rookie forward Ryan O’Reilly scores his first career goal as the Madison Capitols fall short to the Cedar Rapids RoughRiders, 4-3, at Bob Suter’s Capitol Ice Rink on Saturday night.
“It was a tough start for us,” assistant coach Jake Suter said following the game. “Our leaders, Bederka, De Mey, Broetzman and Borchardt stepped up big time for us in the third period. Unfortunately, we fell just short of forcing overtime tonight.”
Giving them their second power play goal of the night, Timmons sauced a pass to forward Nathan Smith at the hashmarks. Smith snapped the pass through the legs of a Madison defenseman and left wing Marek Valach slapped the puck past Capitols goaltender Dryden McKay for the game-winning goal at 10:17 of the middle period.
The RoughRiders earned their first goal of the night when right wing Jordan Timmons buried the rebound on a shot from left blueliner Kyle Looft. The power play goal was scored at 8:26 of the first frame. Center Dalton Messina was also credited with an assist.
Leaving the Capitols trailing by two, forward Brian Chambers fed a pass to Valach in the RoughRiders zone. Valach skated down to the net of McKay and shot the puck to Smith who snapped it past McKay for his first goal of the season.
After laying a hit on a Madison defender, Smith skated in on a 2-on-1 breakaway. Smith backhanded the puck from the left face-off circle to Valach on the doorstep. Valach one-timed the puck over the left shoulder of McKay to put the Rough Riders up by 3-0.
For the Capitols first goal of the night, defenseman Branden Suter and center Ludwig Stenlund were cycling the puck on the power play. Suter slid the puck to Stenlund who slapped the puck over netminder Jiri Patera’s head to give the Capitols a single tally. Center Cade Borchardt was also credited with an assist.
O’Reilly earned his first career goal at 8:07 of the third period. Borchardt left the puck for O’Reilly who flew in and wristed the puck into the top corner of the net cutting Cedar Rapids lead in half.
For the final goal of the night, forward Alec Broetzman slid the puck down the boards to O’Reilly at the end line. O’Reilly deked past both RoughRiders defenders and threw the puck on net for his second tally of the night..
McKay (0-2-0-0) suffered his second loss of the season stopping 15-of-19 shots. Patera (1-1-0-0) took his first win of the season with 12 saves on 15 shots.
Photo: Justin Nuoffer, Madison Capitols
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