Winger Nico Blachman of the Iowa Heartlanders is a fan favorite and engaging guy who left his Florida home at 13 to play prep school hockey in Minnesota. He has played for 20 junior, college and professional teams in 10 years and vows to keep going as an enforcer type of player.
The Iowa Heartlanders beat Wichita on three consecutive days last week. The ECHL club gave up just four goals in those games. The Cedar Rapids RoughRiders dropped three games last week.
The Cedar Rapids RoughRiders have picked up standings points in their last six USHL games to climb into a playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. Part of the surge can be credited to the goaltending tandem of Rudy Guimond and James Norton. Guimond, a Detroit Red Wings draft pick, has been here all season. Norton joined the club in January after beginning the season in the NAHL and excelling in a short emergency stint with Dubuque of the USHL.
The lease for the ECHL’s Iowa Heartlanders at Xtream Arena in Coralville runs out at the end of this season. Team president Matt Getz said he is confident in an extension and excited about an uptick in home attendance since Christmas.
Cedar Rapids RoughRiders head coach/general manager/president Mark Carlson is two wins shy of tying and three from breaking the United States Hockey League’s career coaching victories record. The Riders play three games this weekend.
Forward Gavin Hain was a draft pick of the Philadelphia Flyers who signed an ECHL contract with the Iowa Heartlanders in September. But he’s spent most of this hockey season in the American Hockey League with the Iowa Wild. He’s back in Coralville ... for now.
The Cedar Rapids RoughRiders have played terrific hockey on the road this USHL season, accumulating 21 of a possible 32 standings points. But they’ve won just three times at home in 18 games, tied for the fewest in the league.
Drew DeRidder signed with the Iowa Heartlanders in the offseason despite knowing he’d begin the ECHL season as the club’s third goaltender. He finally is getting an opportunity to play and is making the most of it.
The Iowa Heartlanders rallied for three goals in the third period Monday afternoon at Xtream Arena to force overtime against the Cincinnati Cyclones, eventually winning, 5-4. But that’s just a small part of the story, as massive travel woes hit the ECHL club as it attempted to return home following two weekend games in Tulsa, Okla.
Defenseman Colin Grable is the captain of this season’s Cedar Rapids RoughRiders team. He will turn 21 next week, making him the oldest player on the team and one of the oldest in the United States Hockey League.
Hunter Lellig is from Waterloo, played junior hockey for his hometown Waterloo Black Hawks. After five years of college hockey, he is playing professionally back home with the Iowa Heartlanders of the ECHL.
As the new year rapidly approaches, it seems the perfect time to reflect on the the Corridor’s two hockey clubs have done so far this season. Here’s a look at how the Iowa Heartlanders and Cedar Rapids RoughRIders have fared and what their goals should be heading into 2024.
Iowa forward has degree in kinesology, but wants to keep hockey option open, too
The Toledo Walleye are the best team in the ECHL’s Central Division right now, which was evident this weekend as they swept three games from the Iowa Heartlanders at Xtream Arena. But Iowa got a standings point in a 5-4 overtime loss Sunday, and the Heartlanders are right in the middle of a six-team pack right behind the Walleye in the division.
Forward Amine Hajibi has been productive for the Cedar Rapids RoughRiders since being acquired in an early season trade from the USHL’s Green Bay Gamblers. Born in Montreal, the 18-year-old forward spends time each summer in Morocco, where his parents are from and where he lived as a youth.
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