Corridor Cross Checks: A Cedar Rapids RoughRiders Olympic trio

CEDAR RAPIDS — You already knew you could get to the National Hockey League from Cedar Rapids. You now have learned you can get to the Olympics from here, too.

Three guys who played at one time or another for the Cedar Rapids RoughRiders have been selected to play for Team USA at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, China, it was announced last week.

Forwards Andy Miele, Marc McLaughlin and Nathan Smith will represent their country at the games, which are Feb. 4-20.

“I say these things all the time,” said RoughRiders Coach/GM/President Mark Carlson. “Our league, the United States Hockey League as a whole, the level of player and the character of the people that we’re coaching and the fans are watching, it’s really second to none.”

The opportunity for Miele, McLaughlin and Smith came about after the NHL and its players decided not to participate in the Olympics because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Team USA general manager John Vanbiesbrouck put together a 25-man roster that consists of 15 college players, eight guys who play professionally in Europe and two who are playing professionally in the American Hockey League, the top minor league in America.

Miele is a 33-year-old who played in Cedar Rapids the entire 2005-06 season and part of 2006-07 before being traded to the USHL’s Chicago Steel. He went on to win the Hobey Baker Award (as college hockey’s top player) at Miami of Ohio, played 15 games in the NHL with the Phoenix Coyotes and now plays for a team in the Kontinental Hockey League in Russia.

McLaughlin and Smith actually were RoughRiders teammates in the 2017-18 season. McLaughlin is a senior captain at Boston College and Smith a junior at Minnesota State.

Smith was drafted by the NHL’s Winnipeg Jets after a standout 2018-19 season in Cedar Rapids.

“The first thing is I’m just so proud of them,” Carlson said. “The three of them, nothing was ever handed to these guys. Smitty and Miels, those guys were free agents that made our team. Mac was a really valuable player for two years.

“There was a period of time where it was Matt Denman, Nathan Smith, Marek Valach, Graham Slaggert and Mac on the power play. It was a tremendous power-play unit. Smitty and Mac on the same power play. That’s another special piece of it, guys from the same RoughRiders team here that are going to be playing together again on Team USA.”

Former RoughRiders defenseman Sergei Kolosov represented Belarus in the 2010 Winter Olympics. Twenty-one of the 25 members of Team USA played in the USHL.

The RoughRiders (12-16-1-0, 25 standings points, seventh of eight teams in USHL Eastern conference) dropped both ends of a home-and-home weekend series against the Madison Capitols: 5-2 at home and 5-4 in Wisconsin.

Cedar Rapids has lost five games in a row after starting the post-holiday portion of their schedule with a win over Dubuque. Bruno Bruveris was the goaltender in both of last weekend’s games, his first action since Oct. 30 because of injury.

Iowa Heartlanders

The Heartlanders cured their overtime blues Sunday afternoon by not going there. Jake Smith’s goal with 1:08 left in regulation gave them a 2-1 win over the Indy Fuel at Indianapolis.

Iowa lost in OT Friday night at home against the Kansas City Mavericks, with Loren Ulett scoring just 24 seconds into the extra period. Kansas City ran to a 3-0 lead after a period, with the Heartlanders rallying for three goals in the second to tie things.

Jared Thomas scored at the 2:45 mark of overtime Saturday night to give Indy a 4-3 win. Defenseman Adrien Beraldo’s goal with 3:46 left in regulation had tied the game at 3 for the Heartlanders.

Iowa’s regulation goal Sunday was scored by Derek Whitmore. How good a story was that?

Whitmore was signed on an emergency basis for the second time this season for Sunday’s game because forward Kaid Oliver was promoted to the Iowa Wild of the American Hockey League. Whitmore is an assistant coach for the Chicago Steel of the USHL, played two games in the NHL for the Buffalo Sabres in 2011-12 and hadn’t played professionally since the 2017-18 season.

The Heartlanders are 12-17-5-1 for 30 standings points, seventh and last in the ECHL’s Central Division.

This week

The Heartlanders finish a five-game road trip this weekend, with a game Friday night at Toledo, Ohio, against the Walleye and games Saturday night and Sunday afternoon at Wheeling, W.V., against the Nailers.

The RoughRiders host the Dubuque Fighting Saints on Friday night (7:05 opening faceoff), with a Fleet Farm Game of Giving the promotion. Saturday night, Cedar Rapids plays at Waterloo against the Black Hawks.

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