CEDAR RAPIDS ROUGHRIDERS: The U.S. National Under-17 Team opens the USHL playoffs against Cedar Rapids inside USA Hockey Arena after Team USA finished third in the Eastern Conference.

Cedar Rapids finished with a 30-23-4-5 (W-L-OTL-SOL) record in the regular season for the six-seed in the Eastern Conference.

In three series’ this season, the U17s and RoughRiders are an even 3-3 with weekend splits all three meetings, once at ImOn Ice and twice at USA Hockey Arena. Recently (April 7-8), Team USA hosted Cedar Rapids in their regular season series finale which saw an overtime game along with a shutout. In the team’s first meeting of the weekend (Fri., April 7), the U.S. forced overtime with under a minute to go but the RoughRiders came out on top in overtime, 3-2. The following night (Sat., April 8), Team USA answered with a 4-0 shutout.

Overall, Cedar Rapids holds a +4-goal differential over Team USA and is +2 inside USA Hockey Arena.

Cedar Rapids forward Ryan Walsh has been one of the league’s best scorers throughout the season and his 79 points (30g-49a) ranks second among all USHL skaters. Behind Walsh and just nearly productive as him is Dylan Hryckowian whose put up 65 points (26g-39a) in 61 games. Zaccharya Wisdom trails Walsh for the team lead in goals scored by two with 28 in 59 games.

On the back end of Cedar Rapids is Eric Pohlkamp who is t-1st amongst USHL defenseman with 51 total points (16g-35a), while Brendan Fitzgerald is behind his teammate with 24 points (3g-21a) in 43 games.

In between the pipes is the RoughRiders’ leading netminder Bruno Bruveris who has seen action in 43 games thus far. He sits sixth overall with a 2.60 GAA to go along with his 23-13-3-3 record and .897 SV%. The goaltenders 23 wins puts his fifth on the leaderboard in wins which includes four shutouts, t-3rd in the league. The other half of Cedar Rapids goalie tandem is rookie Sam Scopa. In 23 appearances, Scopa has posted a 7-10-1-2 record with a 3.29 goals-against average and .873 SV%. Scopa is one of four rookie netminders to have appeared in 20+ games this season.

Against the U17s, Bruveris and Scopa have played three games apiece with Bruveris holding a 2-1-0-0 record against Team USA, along with a 3.00 goals-against average and .852 SV%. Scopa has dropped two games to the U.S. with one win, a 3.67 GAA and .845 SV%. Both netminders are 1-1-0-0 inside USA Hockey Arena.