The Indiana Ice fell behind early and could not solve Cedar Rapids goaltender Troy Grosenick as the Cedar Rapids RoughRiders took a 1-0 playoff series lead with a convincing 6-0 victory last night from the Cedar Rapids Ice Arena in Cedar Rapids, IA.

Indy outshot Cedar Rapids 41-25 in the contest, but the RoughRiders connected for three first period goals, including two on the power play. The Ice went 0-6 with the man advantage.

Jeff Costello's power play goal at the 4:15 mark of the first period gave Cedar Rapids a 1-0 edge right out of the gate. Mac Bennett followed midway through the period with a power play marker to put the home team up 2-0. Jordan DiGiando scored just over a minute later to give the RoughRiders a 3-0 cushion at the first intermission.

Cason Hohmann scored the lone goal in the middle frame to extend Cedar Rapids' lead to 4-0.

The RoughRiders added a pair of insurance goals in the third period as Zach Lehrke and Eric Robinson both potted goals.

The veteran Grosenick earned the postseason shutout with an incredible 41-save performance. Cab Morris stopped 13 of 17 shots for the Ice, before being relieved by Casey DeSmith who turned back six of seven shots.

The Ice was playing without regular season leading scorer Bryon Paulazzo and forward Brian Ferlin, who were both sidelined with injuries.

Game two is Friday in Cedar Rapids, before the two teams return to Indianapolis for game three at 7:05 pm Saturday night at the Indiana/World Skating Academy at Pan Am Plaza.

In other USHL contests Wednesday night, Green Bay edged Waterloo 2-1 to take a 1-0 series lead, while both West Division contests were one-sided affairs. Omaha downed Tri-City 7-1 to go up 1-0 in the series, while Fargo beat up on Sioux Falls 5-1 in game one of their series.