Energizer bunny Dalton Messina brings toughness to Cedar Rapids RoughRiders

CEDAR RAPIDS - All you need to know about Dalton Messina's intensity level as a hockey player was there on full display Wednesday afternoon at the Cedar Rapids Ice Arena.

The Cedar Rapids RoughRiders forward was doing a post-practice faceoff drill with teammates and not faring particularly well. He lost two or three draws in a row, and it didn't sit well with him.

A frustrated Messina walked away from the center-ice dot, uttered something unmentionable and slammed his stick hard on the ice. Twice.

'His work ethic is great, he does a lot of good things,” said RoughRiders Coach Mark Carlson. 'He has improved a lot. I think he appreciates the opportunity to be in the league, appreciates the opportunity to be here in Cedar Rapids, appreciates coaches working with him and pushing him and being hard on him. He wants to be coached.”

Messina, 18, is a fun guy to watch because of that aforementioned intensity and his willingness to bang into opponents. The Macomb, Mich., native has a pair of goals and four points in 26 games for the Riders, who hosted Sioux Falls on Friday night, with his 83 penalty minutes leading the team.

He wants to be a physical force, craves the contact.

'Definitely just an aggressive player,” Messina said. 'Coach talks about being tough mentally and physically, and I think I can bring that. That's a key thing to playing. He has actually shown us a video of Wendel Clark taking a puck to the face. I'd like to think I match up (with that), but not quite.”

Messina said he patterns his game after Boston Bruins forward Milan Lucic.

'Everybody is afraid of him, and I like that,” Messina said. 'I like hearing that from other teams. I like to be feared out there.”

He was asked if he could sense an opponent's timidity towards him.

'It depends on the player, but if you hit someone hard the first time, they might go in there a little jittery next time,” he said. 'I think I need to get back to more of that (tough play), honestly. Not that I'm not doing it. We've been so busy, we've taken so many penalties lately, I feel like I've kind of gotten away from that a little bit. It's never a bad thing to protect your players, especially. I think it would mold us more as a team, too. Just to know that everyone has each other's backs.”

In other RoughRiders news, the club announced it has traded forward Austin Martinsen to Minot of the lower-level North American Hockey League. Martinsen was acquired in an early season trade from Sioux Falls of the USHL and had two goals in 14 games for Cedar Rapids.

The Riders also have traded for forward Jordan Timmons of the USHL's Muskegon Lumberjacks. A ‘C'-listed skater on Central Scouting Service's list of potential NHL draft picks, Timmons had a goal and eight assists in 19 games for Muskegon.

Cedar Rapids traded a 2017 USHL Phase I draft pick to pick up Timmons, also acquiring one in the deal.

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