Corridor Cross Checks: Finally some wins away from the Heartland

CEDAR RAPIDS — About time. About dang time.

The Iowa Heartlanders went too long before notching their first ECHL road win of the season. Way, way, way too long.

It finally came Friday night against the Wheeling Nailers, 2-1. Yuki Miura’s second-period goal turned out to be the winner.

Goaltender Hunter Jones made 25 saves for the win. The following night he had 36 stops as the Heartlanders won again at Wheeling, 7-2.

Brendan Robbins had two goals and Zach White three assists. The Heartlanders lost their first 20 road games this season, believe it or not, including seven in overtime.

“Obviously it’s been on all of our minds, the team and staff,” said Heartlanders Coach Derek Damon. “We’ve wanted to get it for a long time, and we’ve been really close. These games that we went to overtime in on the road, those could have gone either way. I think at some times we deserved a better fate, but we didn’t get the bounce.

“To me, we went to Wheeling with the mindset that (it was) enough. I loved our compete level, the guys really stuck to the game plan, they worked extremely hard, and, because of that, we got rewarded for our effort.”

Fort Wayne beat Iowa on Sunday in Indiana, 5-2. White and Jordan Martin had goals for the Heartlanders.

Darion Hanson had 44 saves in a losing effort. He was acquired in a trade last week from the ECHL’s Savannah Ghost Pirates.

The Heartlanders have a 9-23-9-1 record for 28 standings points, last in the ECHL’s Central Division. They host the Indy Fuel at Xtream Arena on Wednesday night, play Friday night at Indy and Saturday night at Toledo.

“We’ve got a young team going through the growing pains of being full-time professional hockey players,” Damon said. “You’re starting to see guys who are starting to emerge. They’re starting to understand ‘This is my job, and I’ve got to find a way to get it done.’”

Cedar Rapids RoughRiders

Six of the eight teams in the United States Hockey League’s Eastern Conference make the playoffs at the end of the regular season. Looking at the standings going into this week, you might be able to take a pretty good shot at those six.

Though what order they’ll finish in will be much more difficult.

The Chicago Steel lead the division with 51 standings points, with the USA Hockey National Team Development Program second with 47. Then it’s Green Bay with 46 points, Youngstown 44, Dubuque with 42 and the Cedar Rapids RoughRiders in sixth place with 40.

That is not a wide spread from first to sixth. Which means the little things might make a difference in who gets in and how the playoffs are seeded.

Little things like power-play efficiency and shorthanded effectiveness. The RoughRIders rank third in the USHL in power-play efficiency at 26.4 percent, behind only Sioux Falls (27.5) and Chicago (29.1).

Cedar Rapids is tied with Sioux City for fourth in the league in killing off power plays, doing so at 81.4 percent. Green Bay is the league leader at 85.2 percent.

The RoughRiders have a home-and-home set this weekend against the Dubuque Fighting Saints. The teams are separated by just two points in the standings at fifth and sixth.

Friday night’s games between the teams is at ImOn Ice. Dubuque hosts Saturday night’s game.

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