Corridor Cross Checks: Iowa Heartlanders on a heater

CEDAR RAPIDS - Coach Derek Damon built a team for the Iowa Heartlanders this ECHL season with character guys, dudes who would be good at playing hard hockey, direct hockey. More of a simple game, if you will.

He theorized that the Heartlanders would be in a ton of close games, and he wanted that approach to pay off late in crunch time. It has.

Iowa has a 6-1-3 record in one-goal games and has won five games in a row overall going into this week. It has a 12-5-3-0 season mark, its 27 standings points placing it in second place in the ECHL’s Central Division, just four points behind Toledo for first place.

And, wouldn’t you know it, those teams play a pair of games at Xtream Arena in Coralville this week: Wednesday morning at 10:35 in the annual school kids promotion and Friday night at 7.

“We just ask our guys to play a committed game,” Damon said. “They have really bought in. Credit to the guys in the room, they just work so hard, they play for each other. When you get a group that’s committed, that is playing the right way and playing a simple game, then you have the opportunity to have success.”

The Heartlanders won this past Wednesday at Toledo in its kids day promotion, 3-2, on Yuki Miura’s goal 1:11 into overtime. A goal by Iowa’s T.J. Walsh with 4:41 left in regulation tied things and sent them to OT.

The weekend saw the Heartlanders win two more one-goal games at Indy: 4-3 Friday night and 2-1 in overtime Saturday. They were the first two games at the Fuel’s brand new arena, the Fishers Event Center, located just outside Indianapolis.

Iowa scored the final three goals of Friday night’s game, all in the third period. Walsh had the winner with 8:20 left.

Defenseman Andrew McLean’s first goal this season won Saturday’s game in OT. Kyle McLellan picked up two goaltending wins last week, William Rousseau the other.

McLellan was the Big Ten Conference’s goalie of the year last season at the University of Wisconsin. Rousseau was last season’s OHL goalie of the year for major junior in Canada, playing for Rouyn-Noranda of the QMJHL.

“We’ve had good goaltending. Both goalies are outstanding goalies,” Damon said. “We built our back end, the D corps, with guys who are mobile, big, they play hard. And then it has been an emphasis of ours to be in the best shape that we can be, so we can play the style of play that we want. We play hard, we go north really fast, we play quick, and we play simple.

“Part of the reason we are holding teams to such low shot totals recently is because we aren’t turning the puck over. We are getting pucks in deep, and we’re getting pucks out (of the defensive zone), so we’re not playing defense much. When you do that, you’re forechecking, then you put the other team under a lot of pressure.”

To Damon’s point, Iowa limited Toledo to 16 shots on goal last week and Indy to 15 in Saturday’s game.

“The way we played on this road trip, you could start to see that the guys are starting to get that belief that they can win,” Damon said. “When a group gets that belief, all of a sudden you’ve got something. As simple as it sounds. When you feel that belief in the room ...”

You win five and a row and get yourself within sniffing distance of first place.

Cedar Rapids RoughRiders

The RoughRiders had a difficult time finding the net over the weekend and thus lost a pair of games to the older of the United States National Team Development Program’s two teams.

Friday night was an especially bitter pill to swallow, as The Program scored with 59 seconds left, added an empty netter and won 2-0. The Program outshot Cedar Rapids in the third period by an 18-5 margin.

Goaltender A.J. Reyelts made 31 saves for the Riders.

The Program scored twice in the first period and twice in the third to win Saturday night’s game, 4-1. Amine Hajibi had the Cedar Rapids goal, with newcomer Noel Ohgren picking up an assist.

Ohgren was acquired last week in a trade with the Fargo Force. He is the younger brother of Minnesota Wild minor league prospect Liam Ohgren.

Cedar Rapids has the fewest amount of goals in the United States Hockey League with 49 in 22 games. It has an 8-12-1-1 record and 18 standings points, sixth of eight teams in the Eastern Conference.

The club plays a home-and-home series with Chicago, then goes on a week-plus holiday break with the rest of the league. The teams play Friday night in Geneva, Ill., and Saturday night at Imon Ice Arena (7:05 opening puck drop).

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