DUBUQUE – The best way to see where you're at on the eve of the season is to skate with the defending Clark Cup champions.

You can only judge so much from preseason results (for reference, see the 2012 Stanley Cup champion Los Angeles Kings, who came from south of Nowhere), but the tape of the Cedar Rapids RoughRiders' Thursday night exhibition with the arch-rival Dubuque Fighting Saints, showed a confident club outplaying the class of the USHL on its home ice.

Going deep into their energy and intensity well, the RoughRiders tripped Dubuque 3-2 in a shootout on fourth shooter Judd Peterson's low netter and some money relief goaltending by Chris Birdsall at the Mystique Community Ice Center.

“We wanted to put ourselves at that (Dubuque's) level and show we're going to compete every single night in this league this season,” said forward Dylan Gareau, whose first-period netter set the tone for Cedar Rapids' effort Thursday.

The Roughs' win in the USHL's toughest road venue gave them the Eastern Conference's best preseason record and clear proof they are at a rebuilding Dubuque squad's level, at least at the dawn of the 2013-14 campaign.

Coupled with their 5-2 victory over Dubuque back home Sept. 10, the RoughRiders look every bit the heavily revamped Saints' equal entering opening night.

“This was an important game for us to get on the bus, going into another city and going into another building, and see what it takes to win a hockey game,” Cedar Rapids coach Mark Carlson said. “To be successful in this league, you've got to be able to win on the road and at home.

“This was a good learning experience for our guys.”

But Carlson isn't overselling his club's preseason sweep of Dubuque.

“For us, the opponent doesn't matter,” Carlson said. “We want to compete every night. There are 15 good teams in this league, so we're not going to get caught up in the opponent. But obviously, we have a lot of respect for Dubuque.”

Carlson's disclaimer applies because this is a heavily reworked Dubuque club. Saints coach and general manager Jim Montgomery, the architect of Dubuque's rise to national power was lured away by NCAA Division I Denver after producing two Clark Cup championship clubs and three first-round NHL Draft picks in three years. College calls and promotions have led to major roster turnover that has left the Saints with just seven players back from 2012-13 for their title defense.

Still, under new coach/general manager and long-time NHL assistant Matt Shaw, the Saints don't figure to need long to catch up to the learning curve. Dubuque scored third at last month's Junior Club World Cup in Russia.

Cedar Rapids upstaged the champs by convincingly controlling and winning the first period. Gareau beat new Dubuque No. 1 goalie Christian Frey for the game's first goal off an Andrew Oglevie feed on a successful goal rush 9:20 into the contest.

Dubuque shook off its slow start and owned much of the second period. The Saints stormed RoughRiders starting netminder Danny Tirone for a pair of tide-turning goals. Shane Kavanagh got the Saints even 3:20 into the second, going top shelf with a pretty unassisted riser. Three minutes later, Dubuque's Andrew Gaus – blazing on a breakaway following the Saints' quick puck reverse – fired a bullet past a defenseless Tirone to give Dubuque a 2-1 advantage.

Shortly thereafter, Carlson pulled a talented Tirone – a New Hampshire recruit – for Birdsall. He was promptly greeted by a Dubuque mob's goal crash and deftly covered a loose puck just in front of the goal line to keep the Cedar Rapids deficit at one goal.

Birdsall's split-second save proved even more valuable when forward Alec Marsh fired an unassisted long-range goal home with just 20 seconds left in the period, sending Cedar Rapids into the second intermission even at 2-all.

A penalty on Charlie Curti with 9:59 to play put Dubuque on the power play and put Cedar Rapids on its most important defensive stand of the night. The Riders' penalty kill unit delivered and the game stayed square at 2.

A wild and wooly close to the third period saw Frey stop three RoughRider shots in a 21-second span and a Cedar Rapids last-gasp effort charge to avoid overtime fail just before the final horn. Overtime was just as even as neither rival let up, even though a victory would only serve as a progress report.

“We treated it like a regular-season game,” Frey said. “There was great intensity (by both teams). Cedar Rapids is one of our biggest rivals. It's going to be a pretty intense rivalry this year."

Cedar Rapids had truer aim in the shootout with Oglevie beating Frey by double-tapping a shot through his legs to give the Riders a 1-0 advantage. Birdsall kicked away Brett Boeing's ensuing attempt for Dubuque in the biggest play of the shootout. Dubuque's Alexx Privitera went right with a low liner to relock overtime at 1.

Next up was Peterson, who fooled Frey by going right and low for the game-winner. Dubuque's Robbie Darrar faltered trying to juke a non-biting Birdsall, and Cedar Rapids got out of town with an impressive season warmup victory.

Cedar Rapids' game performance in the USHL's toughest road venue wasn't without flaws. The RoughRiders shot blanks on four power play attempts, and Gareau missed a point blank chance late in the first period that would have given Cedar Rapids a two-goal advantage.

In reality, Thursday's quiz was just a preview, a taste of the grueling, grinding, unrelenting effort Cedar Rapids knows it will have to exert for nine full months if its to outskate Dubuque and take its title of class of the USHL. But all and all, it was a good night's work, and a small step forward to getting to the long-term level of the Clark Cup champions.

“The sky's the limit for us this year,” Gareau said. “We're going to have a great year. It's going to be a fun year.”

Cedar Rapids     1  1  0  0  1 - 3
Dubuque         0  2  0  0  0 - 2

CR-Dylan Gareau (Andrew Oglevie)
Dub-Shane Kavanagh (Keegan Ford, Eric Robinson)
Dub-Andrew Gaus (Dylan Gambrell)
CR-Alec Marsh (unassisted)