Corridor Cross Checks: A look at last week in hockey

CEDAR RAPIDS — The Cedar Rapids RoughRiders are on the shelf. It remains to be seen for how long.

The United States Hockey League team had road games Saturday night at Green Bay and Sunday at Dubuque postponed because of a COVID-19 outbreak. They will be rescheduled at a later date.

The RoughRiders returned to the ice for a Dec. 26 practice after being off for the holidays for a week. They played at home Dec. 27, edging Dubuque on a late Travis Shoudy power-play goal, 5-4.

Two nights later, the Riders gave up five unanswered goals in the second and third periods to lose at Des Moines, 7-2.

Coach Mark Carlson said just before the season began in October that the entire team was in the process of being fully vaccinated, so these appear to be breakthrough cases.

Cedar Rapids has a long road trip to Youngstown upcoming this weekend, with games scheduled Friday and Saturday nights. The team generally leaves for Ohio the day before a game, so it will be interesting to see how many players and coaches will be available and if the weekend games will go on as scheduled.

Sources said the RoughRiders have experienced “a few” positive cases.

Andy Moore had a goal and assist in each of C.R.’s games last week. The soon-to-be 20-year-old forward is a Northeastern University commit.

The RoughRiders are 12-12-1 for 25 standings points. That places them in a fifth-place tie with Youngstown and Green Bay in the eight-team Eastern Conference. They have four games in hand on fourth-place Madison, which leads them by five standings points.

Iowa Heartlanders

Five games in eight days is a handful. A very large handful.

That was Iowa’s immediate post-holiday schedule.

The Heartlanders began with a 6-5 overtime loss at home Dec. 26 to the Kansas City Mavericks. Two days later, they edged Kansas City, 3-2.

Two nights later, Iowa lost to the Tulsa Oilers at home, 5-2. Then it was time to hit the bus, with the Heartlanders heading to Fort Wayne for a game two nights later that they lost, 1-0.

Finally it was a game Sunday at Indianapolis that the Heartlanders lost to the Indy Fuel, 4-1. Did you get all that?

The rotating roster continues, with Jack Berry and Connor Kaczperski now the team’s goaltenders, with Hunter Jones and Trevin Kozlowski assigned to the Iowa Wild of the higher-level American Hockey League.

Both Berry and Kaczperski spent previous time this season in the lower-level Southern Professional Hockey League: Berry with the Peoria Rivermen and Kaczperski the Vermillion County Bobcats. Berry played college hockey at WIsconsin and Kaczperski at Denver.

Iowa also lost forward Yuki Miura to an injury that will keep him out of action for the foreseeable future. Miura was a promising first-year pro who had six goals and five assists in 11 games.

Miura fell hard into the end boards after making a rush in the Dec. 29 game against Tulsa, suffering cuts and bleeding to his liver and kidney.

This week

The RoughRiders’ tentative schedule is above. The Heartlanders also have a long road trip of their own upcoming to Rapid City, S.D., to play the Rapid City Rush on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

The Rush are affiliated with the NHL’s Arizona Coyotes and have a 13-13-2-2 record for 30 standings points, third in the seven-team Mountain Division. Iowa is 9-16-3-1, their 22 standings points placing them seventh of seventh teams in the Central Division.

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