Corridor Cross Checks: Cedar Rapids RoughRiders have a huge weekend on the road

CEDAR RAPIDS — Coach Mark Carlson is fond of calling what his hockey club endured this past weekend a pro schedule. And his Cedar Rapids RoughRiders not only survived that pro schedule but thrived in it.

The Riders took five of six standings points playing three games on consecutive days/nights on the road, in different cities.

Cedar Rapids began its odyssey with a 5-4 overtime win Friday night at Sioux City. Then it was a 4-1 win Saturday night at Lincoln.

The trip concluded Sunday afternoon with a 3-2 shootout loss at Des Moines.

“We look at it probably differently than 99 percent of the world population,” RoughRiders Coach Mark Carlson. “We’re playing a game we love, we have great, beautiful buses provided by Windstar, great hotels, we eat great meals, play in great arenas in a great league.

“In all reality, compared to what a lot of people do in the world, it’s really not that hard. You’ve just got to stay focused on things, get after it, have some fun, and that’s what we do.”

Defenseman Joel Kjellberg’s power-play goal 2:01 into OT won the Sioux City game. The RoughRiders rallied from deficits of 2-0, 3-2 and 4-3, forcing the extra session on a Caden Lee goal with 5:49 left in regulation.

Sam Scopa made 25 saves in net for C.R. in the Lincoln game. The RoughRiders got goales from Drew Stewart, Jack Larrigan, Cade Littler and Amine Hajibi.

Kjellberg came up huge again Sunday, scoring on a slap shot through traffic with 1:08 left in regulation. He also had his team’s other goal, that coming 12:29 into the second period.

He was named Monday as the USHL Defenseman of the Week and committed to play college hockey at Arizona State.

“It gives you confidence,” Kjellberg said of the award. “But all that matters to me is the five points we got.”

Rudy Guimond had 39 saves in net for Cedar Rapids, which lost the shootout, 1-0.

The RoughRiders are 6-6-1-1 for 14 standings points, which places it sixth among eight teams in the United States Hockey League’s Eastern Conference. Dubuque leads with 22 points.

Cedar Rapids continues its lengthy road trip this weekend, playing Friday night and Saturday night at Muskegon against the Lumberjacks.

The Iowa Heartlanders

Iowa is the only team in the 28-team ECHL without a victory through three weeks. The Heartlanders lost twice at Cincinnati this past weekend: 5-4 (OT) and 9-4.

Kameron Nault’s goal midway through the third period lifted Iowa into a 4-4 tie and eventually OT in Friday night’s game. Louis Boudon, Nick Campoli and Landon Kosior also scored for the Heartlanders.

Maxim Cajkovic, Jake Durflinger, Liam Coughlin and Jesse Jacques scored in Saturday’s night game for Iowa. That’s eight different goal scorers for the weekend.

The Heartlanders are 0-4-2 and have allowed at least four goals in all six of their games. Reading is 1-5-1-1, with every other team in the ECHL having picked up at least two victories to this point.

The Kalamazoo Wings spend most of the week in the Corridor, playing the Heartlanders at Xtream Arena on Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday nights. Opening faceoff is 6:35 Wednesday and Thursday, and 7:05 Saturday.

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