Corridor Cross Checks: Nick Romeo of C.R. RoughRiders has become ensconced in Eastern Iowa

CEDAR RAPIDS — The topic of conversation around the rink Wednesday afternoon centered on Tynan Lawrence.

The 17-year-old hockey wunderkind from the Muskegon Lumberjacks of the United States Hockey League announced he was leaving junior hockey to join NCAA powerhouse Boston University for the second semester.

Lawrence is considered a lottery pick in this coming summer’s National Hockey League draft, and playing a couple of months of college hockey could push him to the number one spot overall if he performs well. An interesting development, without question.

One that was of particular interest for the Cedar Rapids RoughRiders considering they’d just played Lawrence and Muskegon this past weekend. Winning one game against the Lumberjacks and losing the other in a shootout, by the way.

“It’s his path,” shrugged RoughRiders forward Nick Romeo, when asked about it. “Everyone has a different path.”

Romeo’s hockey path has included a bit of time in the lower-level North American Hockey League and a lot of time in the USHL. He played 45 games in the 2023-24 season for the Dubuque Fighting Saints and five games with them last season before being acquired in a trade by Cedar Rapids.

The 20-year-old graduated from Clarkstown South High School in the New York City suburbs before heading to the highest level of junior hockey in this country. That also is kind of unique.

“It’s been fun. I have enjoyed every minute of it,” he said. “I try to have as much fun as I can every day, no matter where I’m at. Just trying to get close with guys and build friendships that last forever, you know? It’s been awesome. Everyone is different. Some guys go to prep school, some guys stay home. I didn’t want to leave my mom’s cooking until I had to, so I stayed home all four years of high school.”

To add to the uniqueness of Romeo’s path, his USHL experience has been entirely spent in Eastern Iowa, a whole different world from New York.

“Let’s just hope I don’t go to Des Moines, right?” Romeo said with a laugh. “Believe me, I’m really happy here, I don’t want to leave.”

Romeo’s game has evolved and improved to the point where he is an all-situations player for the RoughRiders, about a point-per-game player. He has 13 goals and 13 assists in 30 games this season, already surpassing his points total of 19 from last season.

He credits a lot of offseason work in the summer, including working with skills coaches and a personal trainer for the first time. He’s bigger, faster, stronger and better.

“I think there are a lot of steps I’ve taken,” he said. “You want to be out there on the ice in every situation, whether it’s power play or penalty kill, the last minute of a game. You want to do it for the team and the guys. You want to end up with two points at the end of the night.”

“He’s a great guy, a great team guy,” RoughRiders Coach Mark Carlson said of Romeo. “He’s really good at being able to build relationships with all the guys, whether it’s newer players, guys who have been around. A pretty good summer for him, he built up his body, which has allowed him to play at a higher level, obviously.”

Romeo originally committed to play hockey at UMass-Lowell, but now is looking for a college home. There is zero question he’ll find one, though it just won’t be in Iowa.

The RoughRiders have a 17-9-1-3 record and 38 standings points, which places it in fifth place in an extraordinarily tough Eastern Conference. Cedar Rapids plays Friday night at Omaha, then returns home for a Saturday night game against Madison at 7:05.

Iowa Heartlanders

The Heartlanders have lost eight games in a row and have the fewest standings points in the ECHL with 18, on an 8-19-2-0 record. The club lost three times last week on the road: at Kansas City, 3-1 and twice at Tulsa, 4-2 and 3-2.

Iowa outshot Kansas City but didn’t score until newcomer Rasmus Kumpulainen got a goal midway through the third period. The Heartlanders trailed at the time, 3-0.

Iowa got goals from Jonny Sorenson and Cameron Butler (another newcomer sent down from the Iowa Wild of the AHL) to lead Tulsa in the first game between the goals, 2-0, after the first period. The Oilers, however, scored a goal in the second and three in the third for the win.

Butler and Matthew Sop had goals for the Heartlanders in the second game, as all five goals in the game were scored in the second period. Iowa has three more road games this weekend: Friday night at Toledo (6:15 p.m. opening faceoff), Saturday afternoon at Kalamazoo (3:30 p.m.) and Sunday afternoon (2 p.m.).

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