Corridor Cross Checks: A cross-Canadian road trip for Iowa Heartlanders

CORALVILLE - THE worst road trip of which he’s ever been a part.

“It was either my rookie year of second year pro,” Derek Damon said.

The Iowa Heartlanders head coach was playing for the Florida Everblades of the ECHL in the late 2000s. They’re based in Estero, Fla., near Fort Myers and Naples.

“I remember we went from Florida to Texas and played there a couple of games,” Damon said. “Then we went from there to Alaska. We flew into Denver, then to Seattle, then from Seattle to Anchorage. Played three games there, flew back to Seattle, back to Denver, to Atlanta and then from Atlanta back home to Florida.”

This is the minor leagues, so you don’t have private flights to and from everywhere. As the above itinerary proves, you’re flying commercial.

Guess that beats being on a bus for a dozen hours or something. Still, this roady seems unfair.

“That was an 11-day road trip, kind of what we’re doing now,” Damon said. “We took care of home here, home cooking, as we like to say. Now it’s time to go out on the road and get our first win.”

So far that hasn’t come for the Heartlanders. They’ve played 10 games away from Xtream Arena and lost them all, including two over the weekend at Trois-Rivieres.

That’s in Quebec. Iowa played a home game Wednesday night against Kansas City in which it came from behind to win, then it was back to the arena roughly six hours later to embark on this Canadian journey.

“We fly out of Cedar Rapids at 7 a.m. (Thursday), so get to the rink here at 4:30, 4:45, drive up there and fly to Charlotte,” Damon said. “An hour layover in Charlotte, get into Montreal about 1:30 in the afternoon. Get a couple of rental vehicles to come pick us up and drive about an hour and a half to two hours, get into Trois-Rivieres about 4 o’clock Eastern time. Get up Friday, have a morning skate, get the legs going and be ready for a big tilt on Friday.”

After Friday’s and Saturday’s loss to Trois-Rivieres, the Heartlanders drove back to Montreal and then boarded a flight to St. John’s, Newfoundland. They have games scheduled Wednesday, Friday and Saturday nights against the Newfoundland Growlers, who share the same ownership as the Heartlanders.

That’d be Wednesday, Friday and Saturday nights in the Atlantic Time Zone, which strangely has a two-and-a-half-hour time difference (ahead) from Iowa. The team will depart for home Sunday to prepare for a morning home game Wednesday, Dec. 14, against Kalamazoo.

“These games are all important,” Damon said. “It’s also nice that it gets us out on the road together. Bonding. We’re all together. I think you can already see, you guys can see that this group all plays hard for each other.”

Iowa is 4-9-3-1 for 12 standings points, last of seven teams in the ECHL’s Central Division.

THE CEDAR RAPIDS ROUGHRIDERS

Cedar Rapids split a home-and-home weekend series with the Dubuque Fighting Saints.

Dubuque won Friday night at ImOn Ice, 5-3. The Fighting Saints scored four times to break a 1-1 tie.

Jacob Kraft had a goal and assist for the RoughRiders.

Cedar Rapids rebounded Saturday night with a 6-2 win at Dubuque. Eric Pohlkamp had an unusual defenseman hat trick, scoring once in the second period and twice in the third.

Riley Walsh had assists on all three Pohlkamp goals, two of which came on the power play. Cedar Rapids is 9-8-2-0 for 20 standings points, tied for sixth in the eight-team Eastern Conference of the United States Hockey League, but just three points out of second.

THIS WEEK

As mentioned, it’s a three-game week at Newfoundland for the Heartlanders.

The RoughRiders host Dubuque again Friday night at 7:05, then play Saturday night at Waterloo. It’s Holiday Night, with appearances by Santa and Mrs. Claus.

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