Corridor Cross Checks: A look at what we’ve seen so far

CEDAR RAPIDS — As we head toward the new year, let’s take a look at what we’ve seen thus far from the two hockey teams representing the Corridor.

Those are, of course, the professional Iowa Heartlanders of the ECHL and the junior Cedar Rapids RoughRiders of the United States Hockey League.

IOWA HEARTLANDERS

What’s been good: Let’s begin with they are competitive.

The Heartlanders are 11-12-4-1 for 27 standings points, which places them in fourth place in a jam-packed Central Division. That’d be good enough for the final available playoff spot in the division if the regular season was done today.

Iowa had an emphasis on a fast start this season, or at least faster than its previous two seasons, but that didn’t happen. The club lost its first nine games. Yet they regrouped, survived a brutal three-week, 10-game road trip and have given themselves a chance.

Individually, center Davis Koch has been a good story. He leads the Heartlanders with 15 goals in 28 games. The 25-year-old British Columbia native played his first four seasons of pro hockey in Germany, including one season with Heartlanders head coach Derek Damon.

Koch decided to play this season in North America and has made an offensive impact.

Forward Louis Boudon also has been good, with seven goals and 19 points in 20 games. Boudon is on an American Hockey League contract with the Iowa Wild and has spent some time there.

What hasn’t been quite as good: The Heartlanders have allowed the second-most goals in the ECHL at 106, though they and four others have played the most games in the league thus far (28). Their average goals against of 3.79 is third-worst in the ECHL, behind only Wichita and Allen.

Iowa has been subpar on the penalty kill this season. Its 71.1-percent kill percentage is 27th of 28 teams in the league.

The Heartlanders have drawn an average of 1,842 fans per game at Xtream Arena in 14 openings, an average that ranks last in the ECHL. They finished last in attendance last season and second-to-last in their inaugural season of 2021-22.

2024 goals: Make the Kelly Cup playoffs, plain and simple. Boost those attendance figures.

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CEDAR RAPIDS ROUGHRIDERS

What’s been good: Much like the Heartlanders, it begins with general competitiveness.

The RoughRiders are 9-13-4-1 for 23 standings points, which sits them in sixth place out of eight teams in the Eastern Conference. The top six teams in each division make the USHL playoffs.

The United States National Team Development Program is three points back of Cedar Rapids and has five games in hand.

Cedar Rapids has a wonderful road record of 7-2-2-1, which is quite unexpected for a team that is as USHL inexperienced as this one. It has outscored teams on the road by a 38-31 margin.

Individually, forward Amine Hajibi has shined since being acquired in an early season trade from Green Bay. He has six goals and 24 points in 24 games for C.R., with a plus-minus rating of plus-six.

Likewise, Jack Larrigan has seven goals in 18 games since being acquired from the Lincoln Stars. Rookie Landan Resendes, a Boston College commit, has seven goals in 24 games.

What hasn’t been quite as good: The RoughRiders hit the nearly two-week holiday break with a 1-6-3 slump in the last 10 games. As good as they’ve been on the road, the club is 2-11-2-0 at home at ImOn Ice, the fewest home wins in the USHL.

With its top 13 scorers from last season moving on, offense was a question mark for the Riders coming into this season. They have scored 75 goals, which ranks them 16th in the league.

2024 goals: Make the playoffs. Being more successful at home would be a good start in accomplishing that goal.

Keep improving. Again, considering the inexperience of this team, that’s highly attainable.

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THIS WEEK

A lot of traveling for both clubs.

The Heartlanders head to South Dakota to play against the Rapid City Rush on Friday and Saturday nights. The RoughRiders have a home game Thursday night against the Des Moines Buccaneers (7:05 puck drop), then play Saturday night at Sioux Falls and late Sunday afternoon at Fargo.

Comments: jeff.johnson@thegazette.com