Corridor Cross Checks: Guerin Slezak of C.R. RoughRiders is a young captain, rugged defensive defenseman

CEDAR RAPIDS - He was asked the date of his first and so far only United States Hockey League goal.

Guerin Slezak didn’t know it off the top of his head, but he didn’t have to go far to find it.

“It was against Dubuque on 11-22,” the Cedar Rapids RoughRiders player said. “I’ve got the puck right here. I just like to keep looking at this thing. I know I’m not a goal scorer.”

Slezak is a defensive defenseman, as they say. He takes care of his own end first, second and third, and if something happens where he can jump into the rush or take a pull from the point, he’ll do it.

That’s how he got his goal against the Fighting Saints in November. He took a drop pass from teammate Nick Romeo and let one go.

“It did about four wanky things and went into the net,” he said.

The lack of points (he had two assists in 50 games last season and a goal and three assists in 33 games this season) isn’t to say the 18-year-old from Arlington, Texas, doesn’t affect games. He leads the RoughRiders in plus-minus rating at plus-10.

And despite his younger age, he is the captain of his team, which is quite something.

“Obviously it’s a huge honor, and it’s something I never take lightly,” Slezak said. “But I also recognize that we have a lot of great leaders in the room, too, and everybody has a voice. It’s not just a one-man show. It’s everybody collectively helping out.”

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“Excellent leader,” said RoughRiders Coach Mark Carlson. “Plays like a RoughRider - leads by example on and off the ice.”

Slezak grew up in a non-tradition hockey area, falling in love with the game because his family also had season tickets to games of the NHL’s Dallas Stars. He also had an older brother, Steven, who played.

He grew up playing midget and high school hockey in the Dallas area, making a huge jump last season to the USHL from the Dallas Stars Elite 16U AAA team. There is still significant upside with the kid, who plans on playing one more season with the RoughRiders before heading to Princeton University for college hockey.

”I just feel more comfortable,“ Slezak said. ”The league is never going to be easy, right? So you can’t just sit there and think it’s just going to come to you. Your foot always has to be on the pedal, you can never be stagnate. But I definitely do feel more comfortable. Just I think there is more trust in the coaching staff, and it helps.“

The RoughRiders (15-17-1-1, 32 standings points) split a pair of home games this past weekend, losing Friday night to Green Bay, 6-3, then rebounding to shutout Madison, 4-0, the following night. It was the second weekend in a row where the club lost pretty badly on Friday only to recover and post a shutout Saturday.

“Our responses from the Friday night games to the Saturday night games shows a lot of character, shows the character we have in that room,” Slezak said. “The past two weeks, those Friday night games haven’t quite gone the way we would have liked. But the way we are responding on Saturday, our mindset has just been impressive, with what we’ve gone through all year.”

Cedar Rapids has a three-in-three weekend: playing Friday night at Chicago, Satuday night at home (7:05) against Sioux Falls and Sunday afternoon (4:05) against Des Moines. It sits in sixth place (of eight teams) in the USHL’s Eastern Conference, nine points ahead of seventh-place USNTDP and seven points back of Green Bay and Madison, who share fourth place.

Iowa Heartlanders

The ECHL club went 4-0-1-1 in its six-game homestand at Xtream Arena, going 1-0-1-1 this past weekend against Tahoe, which leads the Western Division. The Knight Monsters, who are partially owned by former NFL quarterback Tim Tebow, won Saturday night’s game in a shootout, 1-0, and Sunday afternoon, 3-2, in overtime.

The Heartlanders won Friday night’s game, 7-3. They picked up two wins the previous week against the Indy Fuel and one against the Kalamazoo Wings.

Iowa is 21-11-4-2 overall for 48 standings points. That places them in second place in the Central Division, five points back of front-running Toledo and one ahead of third-place Fort Wayne, which has two games in hand on the Heartlanders.

The Heartlanders received goaltender William Rousseau and forward Matthew Sop from the American Hockey League’s Iowa Wild in time for this past weekend’s games. Rousseau has been one of the top netminders in the ECHL in his rookie season, while Sop is tied with T.J. Walsh for the most points on the team.

He has 24 in just 18 games, also spending significant time with the Iowa Wild. Walsh has 24 points in 34 games.

The Heartlanders lost forward Jonny Sorenson to an injury part way through Sunday’s game. Forward Gavin Hain also remains out after getting hit in the throat in a game a couple of weeks ago. Forward Ryan Miotto is serving a two-game suspension after a boarding major and game misconduct penalty over the weekend.

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