Corridor Cross Checks: Cedar Rapids RoughRiders trying to solve the home-ice riddle

CEDAR RAPIDS — In the Cedar Rapids RoughRiders locker room is a chart that says something to the effect of “Protect This House.”

Each time the Riders win a home game at ImOn Ice Arena, a paper “brick” with the name of the opponent just beaten gets added to the chart.

“It’s looking pretty empty right now,” said RoughRiders goaltender Sam Scopa.

A head scratcher, for sure.

Cedar Rapids goes into its three-in-three set this weekend with a really fine season road record of 9-4-2-1. They always say the goal is to play at least .500 hockey on the road, and then make hay at home.

The RoughRiders have done the former, it’s just the latter that has been a problem. They are 3-12-2-1 on home ice, tied with Omaha for the fewest home wins in the United States Hockey League, particularly nonsensical considering the vast inexperience of this club going into the season.

You’d figure the home-road splits might be just the opposite.

“I think we bring a lot of intensity to every game,” said RoughRiders forward and assistant captain Ryan O’Connell. “But we find ourselves in OT or one-goal games at home, and we just can’t find a way in front of our fans. I feel like we’re getting better, collected some points at home. We’ve played some really good games in here. Hopefully the rest of the season we can turn it around.”

Last weekend was a perfect representation of this conundrum. Cedar Rapids went on the road and smashed Eastern Conference leader Dubuque, 5-2, last Friday night.

Five different players had goals, and Scopa was terrific in net with 33 saves.

Then the following night, the RoughRiders lost at home to Waterloo, 2-1, in a shootout. The upshot was a late goal by defenseman Zach Sharp tied the game, sent it to extra time and gained Cedar Rapids a point.

“At home, we’ve had some good games in here. We’ve played some really good hockey,” Scopa said. “Recently, too. We beat Des Moines (Dec. 28), we played a good game against Waterloo. A statement game for us just in coming back late from that one-goal deficit. It’s just getting that one extra goal, bearing down in goal. Me making that extra save or something. I’m not worried about it at all. I know we’re going to figure it out.”

It’s imperative they do if they want to make the playoffs. The RoughRiders are 12-16-4-2 for 30 standings points, tied with Chicago for sixth place and the final postseason spot in the East.

The Riders play Friday night at Chicago, then return for home games Saturday night against Omaha (7:05 opening puck drop) and Sunday afternoon against Sioux City (4:05 start) in a makeup of a weather-postponed game from two weeks ago.

“On the road, we seem to play a lot more our style of hockey,” O’Connell said. “Hitting, blocking shots, playing as a team. For some reason, we don’t come back here and do it quite as much as we do on the road. We talk about it, we understand it. Hopefully things start changing here, because it’s a great place to play, and we all love it.”

“Every home game is a big one for us,” Scopa said. “We’ve definitely made some improvements. Coach thinks so as well. So I look forward to seeing what’s to come.”

Carlson, by the way, has been out of town this week at USHL owners meetings in Florida. Assistant coaches Mike Lysyj, Hampus Sjodahl and Evan Draves have been running practices.

Iowa Heartlanders

Let’s start with the good news. The great news.

The Iowa Heartlanders had their largest back-to-back home crowds in franchise history last weekend. The ECHL club drew 2,344 fans to its game this past Friday night against the Wheeling Nailers, then had a crowd of 3,990 for their game the following night against Wheeling.

Now the bad news. Iowa dropped both of those games, scoring only one goal in each in 4-1 and 3-1 losses. Nick Campoli had the Heartlanders goal Friday and Pavel Novak the goal Saturday.

Iowa is 14-18-5-1 for 34 standings points. That puts it in seventh and last place in the ECHL’s Central Division.

Toledo (53 points) leads the division, followed by Fort Wayne (44), Indy (42), Cincinnati (40), Wheeling (38) and Kalamazoo (38). The Heartlanders head back to the road this week for games at Cincinnati (Wednesday night) and Indy (Friday and Saturday nights).

Forward Davis Koch leads the team in goals (15) and points (27).

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