The Cedar Rapids RoughRiders spit disaster in the face Saturday night.

Corey Petrash scored the game-winning goal with 53 seconds left in the third period to give Cedar Rapids a crucial 6-5 victory over Dubuque before 2,092 stunned fans at the Ice Arena.

The RoughRiders built an early 5-0 lead, but the Fighting Saints stormed all the back and tied the game 5-5 in the third period before Petrash rescued the home team from danger.

The victory tied the best-of-5 series in the opening round of the USHL playoffs at one game apiece, with Games 3 and 4 in Dubuque next weekend. A fifth and deciding game will be played in Cedar Rapids on Monday, April 21 if the series is tied 2-2 at that point.

Petrash got a pass from Andrew Poturalski in front of the Dubuque goal and flicked it home for the game-winner. The RoughRiders were cheering and dancing in their locker room after giving their playoff hopes the boost they needed.

"I got a great feed from Potts out front. I saw it and just put it in the net," said Petrash.

He said he's never scored a more satisfying goal in his hockey career.

"No, I don't think so," he said. "I think that's most of the guys' first USHL playoff win. It means a lot to the guys.

"It's back to zero (tied 1-1)," he said. "Now we're going into their rink. The last time we were there, we won."

The RoughRiders came out flying and grabbed a 4-0 lead in the first period on goals by Dylan McLaughlin, Andrew Oglevie, Dylan Steman and Mark Auk.

Poturalski scored just 33 seconds into the second period to make it 5-0 and the Riders appeared headed to an easy victory.

The goals by Steman, Auk and Poturalski all came while Dubuque forward Karson Kuhlman was serving a five-minute major penalty for crashing into Cedar Rapids goalie Danny Tirone. The penalty was for "head contact," and it helped the RoughRiders score twice in the last 79 seconds of the second period and again early in the third.

The three goals came less than two minutes apart, but the 5-0 lead was not safe. "I guess we just let up a little bit," said Petrash.

Cedar Rapids lost to Dubuque, 2-1, in the first game of the playoffs Friday night at the Ice Arena. The RoughRiders had only 18 shots on goal in that game, but they came out flying Saturday night and had 15 shots on goal in the first period alone.

Cedar Rapids Coach Mark Carlson thought his club profited from the first game of the series, even though it resulted in a loss to the defending USHL champions.

"I think it was really good for us to get a playoff game under our belt," he said. "We hadn't had one. We weren't there (in the playoffs) last year.

Last night, I think that was a main factor (in the loss).

"We were way, way better tonight and we're looking forward to the week coming up."

The series will resume next Friday and Saturday in Dubuque.

Carlson said his team never panicked after blowing the 5-0 lead.

"We just hung in," he said. "I thought we did a ton of good things tonight. We ran into a few issues there, but we hung in and battled and found a way. I don't think our guys ever doubted themselves at all."

Dubuque      0 3 2 - 5

Cedar Rapids 4 1 1 - 6

CR - Dylan McLaughlin (Scott Moldenhauer, Andrew Oglevie)
CR - Andrew Oglevie (Brennan Sanford)
CR - Dylan Steman (Mark Auk, Alec Marsh)
CR - Mark Auk (Dylan Steman)
CR - Andrew Poturalski (Clark Kuster, Charlie Curti)
Dub - Alexx Privitera (Seamus Malone)
Dub - Robby Darrar (Seamus Malone, Karson Kuhlman)
Dub - Jarrid Privitera (Shane Eiserman, Max McHugh)
Dub - Jacob Benson (Alexx Privitera)
Dub - Seamus Malone (Josh Elmes)
CR - Corey Petrash (Andrew Poturalski)