Corridor Cross Checks: Drew DeRidder finally gets an opportunity

CORALVILLE — You don’t aspire to be the No. 3 goaltender for any hockey team, especially at the professional level.

There’s not much available game time between the pipes, you’re a healthy scratch most nights. It’s an unenviable type of situation, really.

But Drew DeRidder didn’t hesitate when Iowa Heartlanders associate head coach Joe Exter (who’d coached him at Michigan State University) called in the offseason and offered him a chance to be part of the ECHL club. Iowa already had signed Peyton Jones from Europe, had Hunter Jones as a guy under NHL contract with the Minnesota Wild.

DeRidder knew what his situation would be to start the season.

“It didn’t take much thinking for me to take it,” DeRidder said. “They told me where I was going to be at, that I’d be the third goalie coming in. It took some getting used to at first because I’ve never been in that position.

“But I have come to work every day. That hasn’t changed, that’s easy for me. It was tough, but it wasn’t that tough. Just come to the rink every day, be a good teammate and take advantage of my opportunities.”

Those opportunities have come lately. DeRidder has played in Iowa’s last three games, winning two and losing another in overtime.

“When you get a goalie that’s in a rhythm, you’ve kind of got to ride that a little bit,” said Heartlanders Coach Derek Damon.

DeRidder faced 49 shots in Monday afternoon’s 5-4 overtime win against Cincinnati. No goalie in Heartlanders history has seen more vulcanized rubber in a game than that.

“There are games you get peppered, and I almost like it more,” DeRidder said. “It keeps you engaged, and there’s not a second to really overthink anything. I’m conditioned for it. I don’t mind it.”

“I feel like I’ve been playing well lately. Just seeing everything, anticipating everything.”

DeRidder, 23, is a Michigan native who played four seasons at Michigan State before transferring last season to North Dakota. He got one game in for the ECHL’s Kalamazoo Wings after his college season had concluded.

Corridor hockey fans might remember him with the USHL’s Cedar Rapids RoughRiders, where he played as a 16-year-old in the 2016-17 season before moving on to the United States National Team Development Program for two years.

“I went up to Cedar Rapids (recently) because the movie theatre there is better than the one here,” DeRidder said. “A story came back to mind where I remember going there when I was 16. It was a rated-R movie, and I tried to sneak in, but they wouldn’t let me. I was telling guys how I got kicked out of this place. They thought it was funny.”

Cedar Rapids RoughRiders

Nothing really to report for the RoughRiders, who were scheduled to play one United States Hockey League game last week, and it got postponed Saturday night. Cedar Rapids and Sioux City will makeup their game Sunday, January 28, at ImOn Ice Arena.

Riders defenseman Elliott Groenewold did participate Tuesday night in the 2024 Chipotle All-American Game in Plymouth, Mich. The game featured top USHL prospects eligible for this summer’s National Hockey League Draft.

Cedar Rapids also made a couple of player transactions last week. Forward Garret Drotts was traded to Des Moines for a draft pick and goaltender James Norton was added to the roster from Minot of the North American Hockey League.

Norton, 20, was terrific in a four-game emergency stint earlier this season for Dubuque of the USHL. He is a University of Massachusetts commit.

The RoughRiders play Friday night at Dubuque and host Waterloo on Saturday night at 7:05. They are 11-16-4-1 for 27 standings points, sixth of eight teams in the Eastern Conference.

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