The first shutout of the season ended up just inches away for the RoughRiders.

"I looked back and I just saw (the puck) a little over the goal line," Cedar Rapids goalie Danny Tirone said. "Just a little past it.

"That's how it goes sometimes."

Cedar Rapids still put forth an impressive defensive effort in beating Sioux City, 3-1, Wednesday at the Cedar Rapids Ice Arena.

"We don't think about (shutouts)," Cedar Rapids Coach Mark Carlson said. "We're concerned with the two points you get for wins."

The RoughRiders won for the second time in three January games, improving to 16-12-1 while slowing down one of the hottest teams in the USHL.

Sioux City (21-9-1) came in having won 9 of its last 10 games and had been averaging 4.3 goals per game during that run.

Tirone was impressive in goal, coming up with 32 saves, and the RoughRider defense made it hard to get good, clean looks. In addition, the RoughRiders killed all four Musketeer power plays.

"I don't know if we've given up a power-play goal the last three games," Tirone said. (It is actually the last four games and teams are 0-for-14.) "That is beyond big. Just how important it is for us. It frustates them, and gets us going."

The improved special teams play carried over to the entire defense Wednesday.

"We've changed (defense) up just a little bit; tweaked it," RoughRider defender Clark Kuster said. "It's obviously helping us out.

"We spent less time in our zone. That's outworking the other teams, getting the puck out to our wings and getting it out."

The Musketeers finally scored with 7:20 left in the third period. Cedric Lacroix picked up the puck on a pass from behind the net. As he slammed into Tirone and the goal, the puck eeked over the line to set off the red light.

Cedar Rapids has not recorded a shutout this season. Wednesday was the fourth time in 29 games they've given up just one goal.

"It was a nice game for us," Carlson said. "Defensively, we're getting better."

Offensively, Cedar Rapids was all about good timing, picking up two goals with one second left in the period.

In the first period, Kuster hit a shot on the red line near the corner that got past Sioux City goalie Collin Olson despite the odd angle.

"I have no idea how that happened," Kuster said. "I just looked up at the time, the puck ended up on my stick, I threw it in."

Cedar Rapids added a second goal near the end of the second period when Andrew Poturalski took a pass from Mitch Maloney and skated across Olson's face and beat the goalie on his glove side with 1:39 on the clock.

The RoughRiders gave up the only Sioux City goal with 7:20 left, but circled the wagons. When the Musketeers pulled their goalie, Dylan Steman added the coup de grace with an empty net goal with one second left in the game.

A season-low crowd of 1,827 saw the midweek tilt at The Stable. But Carlson said the weekday games don't bother him.

"I like games every day of the week, 365 days of the year," he said.

The RoughRiders improved to 2-4 this season in weekday games.

Cedar Rapids hosts Chicago (14-16-1) on Friday before traveling to Western Conference leader Omaha (23-6-4) on Saturday.

And there are still plenty of games left to get that first shutout.

"If the shutout comes, it's nice," Tirone said. "But the win is all I care about."

Sioux City        0  0  1 - 1
Cedar Rapids    1  1  1 - 3

Period 1
CR - Clark Kuster (Andrew Oglevie)

Period 2
CR - Andrew Poturalski (Mitch Maloney)

Period 3
SC - Cedric Lacroix (Waltteri Hopponen, Jared Thomas)
CR - Dylan Steman (empty net) (Andrew Poturalski)