The Cedar Rapids RoughRiders claimed second place in the Eastern Conference and earned the home-ice advantage for the first round of the USHL playoffs with a clutch 4-3 victory over Chicago Saturday night at the Cedar Rapids Ice Arena.

The RoughRiders will face the Dubuque Fighting Saints in the best-of-5 playoffs in the Eastern Conference semifinals. The series will begin in Dubuque Tuesday night, with Games 2 and 3 in Cedar Rapids next Friday and Saturday.

Game 4 would be played in Dubuque April 20, with Game 5 in Cedar Rapids April 22 if necessary.

The RoughRiders fell one point behind Dubuque in the Eastern Conference standings Friday night, but that changed Saturday night when Cedar Rapids won its game and Dubuque lost to Waterloo.

Youngstown won the Eastern Conference title with a 40-14-6 record for 86 points. Cedar Rapids finished 39-21-0 for 78 points. Dubuque finished 36-19-5 for 77 points for third place and Muskegon was 35-21-4 for 74 points and fourth place.

Muskegon will meet Youngstown in the other semifinal matchup in the Eastern Conference. Sioux City, Tri-City, Omaha and Sioux Falls qualified for the playoffs from the Western Conference.

The RoughRiders fired 50 shots at the Chicago goaltender Saturday night, compared to only 20 shots on goal for the visitors, but the game was tied 3-3 in the third period.

Andrew Oglevie snapped the tie at the 7:29 mark of the final stanza with an assist from Erik Foley and the Cedar Rapids defense took over from there. Chicago managed only two shots on goal in the third period before 3,001 fans at The Stable.

Oglevie gave Cedar Rapids a 1-0 lead early in the game, but Chicago scored three straight goals for a 3-1 lead midway through the second period. Hugh McGing converted a penalty shot for the RoughRiders and Ross Colton also scored for the home team, pulling the Riders into a 3-3 tie entering the final stanza.

Ryan Larkin made 17 saves in goal for Cedar Rapids.

Chicago       1  2  0 - 3
Cedar Rapids  1  2  1 - 4

CR - Andrew Oglevie (Jiri Fronk)
CHI - Ryan Blankenmeier (Connor Murphy, Tanner Laczynski)
CHI - Zach Osburn (Nick Olczyk, Tyler Sifferlen)
CR - Hugh McGing (penalty shot)
CR - Ross Colton (Adam Gaudette)
CR - Andrew Oglevie (Erik Foley)