CEDAR RAPIDS, Ia. – The Cedar Rapids RoughRiders (13-1-0) earned their tenth straight victory, defeating the Tri-City Storm (7-4-3) 7-2 in their first meeting of the season at the Cedar Rapids Ice Arena on Friday night.

Forward Chris Wilkie scored his ninth goal of the season for the Storm in the loss, while forward Matthew Freytag picked up his fourth tally with a power play goal.

Cedar Rapids was led by a tandem of wings in Jiri Fronk and Erik Foley, who combined for five of the RoughRiders seven goals. Fronk scored once in the second and twice in the third to complete a hat trick on the night, while Foley had a goal in each of the first two periods.

The RoughRiders got goals from Foley and Alec Marsh in the first, and secured a 2-0 lead after the opening period.

After a third Cedar Rapids goal by Tyler Gernhofer early on in the second period, Wilkie got the Storm on the board, stealing a puck and heading in alone on a breakaway. The Omaha native beat RoughRider netminder Ben Blacker with a shot glove side, giving Tri-City some life in the game.

But Cedar Rapids responded with two more tallies from Fronk and Foley to take a 5-1 lead, forcing the Storm to pull goaltender Alec Dillon in favor of backup Blake Weyrick.

Freytag’s goal came in the final seconds of Tri-City’s first power play of the evening on a deflection of a slapshot from defenseman Mattias Goransson. Tory Dello picked up the second assist on the goal.

Fronk scored twice in less than a two minute span for the RoughRiders in the third to open things up and despite 17 shots for Tri-City in the final period, the game ended with Cedar Rapids on top 7-2.

The Storm outshot the RoughRiders 34-20 in the game.

Tri-City now heads to Omaha to take on the Lancers at the Ralston Arena on Saturday night at 7:05 p.m.

Notes: The Storm scratched forwards Wade Allison and Chase Hatcher along with defenseman Jason Krych… 

SCORING SUMMARY 

1st Period
Cedar Rapids – Alec Marsh (Tyler Gernhofer) 13:13
Cedar Rapids – Erik Foley (Jiri Fronk, Andrew Oglevie) 15:37

2nd Period
Cedar Rapids – Tyler Gernhofer (Dylan McLaughlin) 1:47
Tri-City – Chris Wilkie (unassisted) 2:37
Cedar Rapids – Jiri Fronk (Erik Foley) 5:58
Cedar Rapids – Erik Foley (power play) (Ross Colton) 12:20
Tri-City – Matthew Freytag (power play) (Mattias Goransson, Tory Dello) 16:26

3rd Period
Cedar Rapids – Jiri Fronk (power play) (Andrew Oglevie) 3:24
Cedar Rapids – Jiri Fronk (Erik Foley, Andrew Oglevie) 5:14

PENALTIES

1st Period
Tri-City – Jake Wahlin – (Slashing), 2 min, 17:38
Cedar Rapids – Alec Marsh – (Slashing), 2 min, 17:38
Tri-City – Jalen Schulz – (Tripping), 2 min, 18:53

2nd Period
Tri-City – Chris Wilkie – (Roughing), 2 min, 5:27
Cedar Rapids – Clark Kuster – (Roughing), 2 min, 5:27
Tri-City – Cody Milan – (Boarding), 2 min, 6:38
Tri-City – Kyle Eastman – (Interference), 2 min, 11:19
Cedar Rapids – Clark Kuster – (Tripping), 2 min, 14:26
Tri-City – Tory Dello – (Continuing Altercation) (Misconduct), 10 min, 20:00
Cedar Rapids – Andrew Gaus – (Continuing Altercation) (Misconduct), 10 min, 20:00

3rd Period
Tri-City – Gordi Myer – (Cross Checking), 2 min, 2:15
Tri-City – Conner Valesano – (Slashing), 2 min, 12:03
Cedar Rapids – Alec Marsh – (Slashing), 2 min, 13:43
Tri-City – Nolan Aibel – (Slashing), 2 min, 20:00

Power Play
Cedar Rapids – 2/5
Tri-City – 1/2

Shots
Cedar Rapids: 6, 7, 7 = Total: 20
Tri-City: 3, 14, 17 = Total: 34

Saves
Cedar Rapids – Ben Blacker – 32/34
Tri-City – Alec Dillon – 5/10, Blake Weyrick – 8/10