Elliot Desnoyers scored with a minute left in three-on-three overtime Wednesday as the Iowa Heartlanders beat Kansas City, 5-4, at Xtream Arena. It was just the third home win this season for the ECHL club and came on its annual Kids Day, with 2,300 tickets reserved for school children from the Corridor area.
Photos from field trip day at the Iowa Heartlanders vs. Kansas City Mavericks hockey game at Xtream Areana in Coralville, Iowa on Wednesday, December 10, 2025.
In this week’s edition, we crunched the numbers in games between Eastern Conference and Western Conference teams in the United States Hockey League. The East is dominating them.
The Professional Hockey Players’ Association released an open letter to fans last week that gave its side of ongoing Collective Bargaining Agreement negotiations between it and the ECHL. The PHPA said it is seeking proper rest for its players, increased salaries and renumeration for corporate and jersey auctions.
The ECHL’s Iowa Heartlanders had a tough three-in-three weekend road trip over the weekend. The club lost Friday night at Cincinnati but rebounded to win there Saturday and Sunday at Toledo, despite posting just nine shots on goal.
Here’s another edition of Corridor Cross Checks. Forward Jason Musa of the Cedar Rapids RoughRiders is a point-per-game player thus far in his second season in the United States Hockey League.
Defenseman Nolan Orzeck began his professional hockey career in the 2022-23 season with the ECHL’s Iowa Heartlanders. After almost three years in Texas and Finland, the 24-year-old Calgary native is back in the Corridor.
Justin Graf of the Cedar Rapids RoughRiders has had a fine start to his United States Hockey League acreer, picking up six goals and 11 points in his first 11 games. The promising forward wants to follow in the footsteps of his older brother, Collin, a forward for the NHL’s San Jose Sharks.
It was a three-in-three weekend for the Iowa Heartlanders this past weekend as the ECHL regular season began. And it was three one-goal games for the Heartlanders, who went 2-1. The Cedar Rapids RoughRiders split a pair of USHL games this past weekend.
Jaxon Nelson scored a pair of goals Sunday for the Iowa Heartlanders in their 5-4 loss at Xtream Arena to the Tulsa Oilers. A former captain for the University of Minnesota hockey team didn’t play a ton of minutes last season with the AHL’s Providence Bruins, something that won’t be the case this season.
The Iowa Heartlanders begin the 2025-26 ECHL hockey season Friday night at home against the Tulsa Oilers. The three-in-three weekend sees the club play Saturday night at Bloomington and Sunday afternoon back at home against Tulsa. The Heartlanders made the ECHL playoffs for the first time last season and has a new head coach in Chuck Weber.
Iowa City West graduate Ben Pizzimenti has signed a contract to attend training camp with the Iowa Heartlanders, the ECHL hockey club has announced. Pizzimenti played high school hockey in the Cedar Rapids RoughRiders program and collegiately at NCAA Division III (non-scholarship) Concordia University in Wisconsin.
The Iowa Heartlanders announced Tuesday that Chuck Weber has been hired as the ECHL franchise’s new head coach. Weber, 52, has been a head coach and assistant coach in the ECHL, the American Hockey League, England and Division I college hockey. He won two Kelly Cup championships in the ECHL with the Cincinnati Cyclones.
Iowa Heartlanders head coach and general manager Derek Damon will leave the ECHL hockey club to take over as head coach and president of hockey operations of the Des Moines Buccaneers of the junior United States Hockey League. Damon was an assistant coach for Iowa in its inaugural season of 2021-22, taking over at head coach/GM in the summer of 2022. The Heartlanders and Bucs both are owned by New York businessman Michael Devlin
The Iowa Heartlanders qualified for the ECHL playoffs for the first time in their four-year existence. They won their first playoff game. But winning their first playoff series will have to wait. Fort Wayne scored three goals in the third period and went on to beat the Heartlanders, 4-1, in the deciding Game 7 of the ECHL first-round playoff series.
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