Corridor Cross Checks: Review of last week’s hockey

Cedar Rapids RoughRiders shelved, the Iowa Heartlanders will play five games in eight days

RoughRiders striker Andy Moore is looking for entry into RoughRiders ’home game against Des Moines Buccaneers on Saturday, December 11, 2021 at the ImOn Ice Arena in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. (Geoff Stellfox / The Gazette)

CEDAR RAPIDS – The Cedar Rapids RoughRiders are on the shelf. It remains to be seen how long.

The U.S. hockey league team’s road games on Saturday night in Green Bay and Sunday in Dubuque were postponed due to the COVID-19 epidemic. They will be transferred later.

RoughRiders returned to ice practice on December 26 after a week-long vacation. They played at home on Dec. 27 and advanced to Dubuque’s late Travis Shoudy power game goal 5-4.

Two nights later, the Riders gave up five unanswered goals in the second and third periods and lost 7-2 in Des Moines.

Coach Mark Carlson said just before the start of the season in October that the entire team was on full COVID vaccination, so these appear to be breakthroughs.

Cedar Rapids has a long way to go in Youngstown this weekend, with games taking place on Friday and Saturday nights. The team usually leaves for Ohio the day before the game, so it will be interesting to see how many players and coaches are available and whether the weekend games continue as planned.

Sources said RoughRiders has experienced “a few” positive cases.

Andy Moore scored a goal and a point in every CR game last week. The soon-to-be 20-year-old striker is committed to Northeastern University.

RoughRiders has 12-12-1 and 25 points. This puts them in fifth place with Youngstown and Green Bay at the eight-team Eastern Conference. They have four games in their hands with Madison in fourth place, leading them by five league points.

HEART PEOPLE

Five games in eight days is a handful. Very large handful.

That was the schedule after Iowa’s immediate vacation.

Heartlanders started with a loss of 6-5 overtime at home on Dec. 26 for the Kansas City Mavericks. Two days later, they beat Kansas City 3-2.

Two nights later, Iowa lost to the Tulsa Oilers at home 5-2. Then it was time to hop on the bus as the Heartlanders headed to Fort Wayne for a game to be played two nights later, which they lost 1-0.

Finally, in a match played in Indianapolis on Sunday, the Heartlanders lost to Indy Fuel 4-1. Did you get everything?

The spinning list continues, Jack Berry and Connor Kaczperski are now the team’s goalkeeper, and Hunter Jones and Trevin Kozlowski have been assigned to a higher-level American Hockey League in Iowa Wild.

Both Berry and Kaczperski last played this season in the lower-level Southern Professional Hockey League: Berry Peoria in the Rivermen and Kaczperski in the Vermillion County Bobcats. Berry played hockey in WIsconsin and Kaczperski in Denver.

Iowa also lost striker Yuki Miura due to an injury that will keep him out of action in the near future. Miura was a promising first-year pro who scored six goals and five assists in 11 games.

Miura fell hard on the end boards after rushing through a December 29 match against Tulsa, suffering incisions and bleeding in her liver and kidneys.

THIS WEEK

The preliminary schedule for the RoughRiders is above. Heartlanders also has a long journey of their own to Rapid City, SD to play Rapid City Rush on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

Rush is tied to the NHL’s Arizona Coyotes and has a 13-13-2-2 record of 30 points, the third in a seven-team Mountain Division series. Iowa is 9-16-3-1, with their 22nd place finishing seventh on the Seventh Central Division team.

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