A hot goaltender can be the big equalizer in any hockey playoff series. The Cedar Rapids RoughRiders streaked into the best-of-five first round Clark Cup series against the Indiana Ice by finishing the regular season with a 21-4-1 record. After the RoughRiders outscored the Ice 11-4 in game one and two victories in Cedar Rapids, in came Indy goaltender Casey DeSmith.

DeSmith stopped 41 RoughRider shots on goal as Indiana evened the series at 2-2 and set the stage for a deciding fifth game Wednesday in Cedar Rapids. The Ice goaltender also turned away 27 RoughRider shots Saturday when Indy returned to home ice trailing the series 2-0 and on the brink of elimination.

“We had all the pressure in the beginning. It was for all the marbles and the game got easier as the game went on,” commented DeSmith. “Our offense and defense played great.”

It did not hurt that the Indiana power play was clicking. The Ice converted on four-of-six opportunities with the man advantage while the penalty killing unit stopped the visitors on all five of their chances with the extra skater.

The hosts scored a pair of goals in each of the three periods.

Indy skated to the first intermission holding a 2-1 lead by wrapping a pair of goals around the RoughRider’s only score. Max Cook put the hosts on board first making Cedar Rapids pay for skating a man short with his third goal of the series. Nic Dowd delivered the scoring pass to Cook in the slot at 1:15 of the first period with Nick Mattson also credited with an assist.

After the visitors evened the score at one-apiece on Andy Simpson’s goal, Shane Berschbach also notched his third of the match-up with RoughRiders.

Berschbach banged home the lead goal out of a scrum in front of the visitor net at 15:22 of the opening frame. All ten skaters on the ice were below the face-off dots including Bryon Paulazzo and Cook-who assisted on the score.

The goal came against relief goaltender Cody Campbell after starting netminder Troy Grosenick was injured in a pile-up with 8:12 left in the period. Grosenick had 1.67 goals against average in the first three games and sported a .956 save percentage.

“Coach (Ice Head Coach Jeff Blashill) said our goaltenders have to outplay their goaltenders,” stated Cook who was more excited about DeSmith’s play in goal than his pair of goals. “I think Casey has done that. We still have one game to go.”

Dowd scored the last goal of the contest just as he did in Saturday’s victory. Kevin Goumas assisted on both third period scores finishing the evening with three helpers. Anthony Bitetto notched his first goal of the series in the final 20 minutes on Indy’s fourth power play goal. Berschbach and Taylor Boldt also had third period assists.