KEARNEY, Neb. - The Cedar Rapids RoughRiders lost to the Tri-City Storm, 4-1, Saturday night before 3,946 fans at the Viaero Event Center and were eliminated from title contention in the Eastern Conference of the USHL.

Cedar Rapids trails Youngstown by five points in the standings with only two games left in the regular season. Even if the RoughRiders win both games, they cannot catch Youngstown for the No. 1 seed in the playoffs.

The RoughRiders have a three-point lead on Dubuque for third place in the Eastern Conference and a four-point lead on Muskegon for fourth place in the jockeying for home-ice advantage in the playoffs. The RoughRiders will have the home-ice advantage in the first round of the playoffs if they can hold onto second place.

Tri-City scored the first three goals Saturday night and led 3-0 in the third period. Cedar Rapids Coach Mark Carlson pulled goalie Ryan Larkin for an extra attacker late in the game and the RoughRiders got a goal from Ross Colton to make it 3-1 with 2 minutes, 14 seconds left to play.

Tri-City scored into an empty net to finish the 4-1 victory.

The RoughRiders have a 38-20-0 record for 76 points. Tri-City has a 36-16-6 mark for 78 points in the Western Conference.

Youngstown clinched the Eastern Conference title Saturday night with a 5-1 victory over Muskegon.

RoughRiders   0  0  1 - 1
Tri-City      1  1  2 - 4

TC - Conner Valesano (Kyle Eastman, Vince Pedrie)
TC - Mattias Goransson (power play) (Wade Allison, Tory Dello)
TC - Allison (Valesano, Goransson)
RR - Ross Colton (extra attacker) (Cal Burke)
TC - Daniel Labosky (empty net) (Chase Berger, Allison