Corridor Cross Checks: Former Cedar Rapids RoughRiders in Olympics?

CEDAR RAPIDS — Corridor Cross Checks begins its weekly look at the Cedar Rapids RoughRiders and Iowa Heartlanders with some potentially exciting news.

It surfaced last week and regards the RoughRiders. Specifically RoughRiders alumni.

Chris Peters and Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff reported 15 players have been formally invited to join the United States Olympic men’s hockey team, and those include former Cedar Rapids players Nathan Smith and Andy Miele.

USA Hockey, the governing body for the sport in this country, has been scrambling to put together a team after it was announced National Hockey League players would not go to the Olympics in China because of the latest wave of COVID-19. The Olympics are Feb. 4-20 in Beijing.

Smith is a junior at Minnesota State University in Mankato who has 13 goals and 33 points in 22 games this season. A Winnipeg Jets draft pick, the Florida native played for the RoughRiders in the 2017-18 and 2018-19 seasons.

A text message to him seeking comment went unanswered.

Miele, 33, played in Cedar Rapids the 2005-06 season and part of 2006-07 before being traded. A former Hobey Baker Award winner as college player of the year, the forward has played 15 games in the NHL and currently is playing in the KHL in Russia for Nizhny Novgorod.

The United States can have 22 skaters and three goaltenders on its Olympic team. Others apparently in the mix for the team are former RoughRiders Marc McLaughlin, a senior at Boston College, and Aidan McDonough, a junior at Northeastern.

The only former RoughRiders player to ever play in the Olympics is defenseman Sergei Kolosov, who represented Belarus in the 2010 games.

The 2021-22 RoughRiders dropped a pair of games over the weekend at Youngstown, 3-1 and 3-0. The team played without five guys described as not being available because of illness.

Cedar Rapids had two road games last weekend postponed because of a COVID outbreak on the team. The Riders are 12-14-1-0 for 25 standings points, seventh of eight teams in the United States Hockey League’s Eastern Conference.

Iowa Heartlanders

It was a long but successful trip west for the first-year ECHL club. Iowa played three games in South Dakota against the Rapid City Rush and won twice.

Saturday’s 4-3 win was the first ever in overtime for the Heartlanders. Bryce Misley scored just 20 seconds into the seven-minute extra session.

Iowa rolled to a 9-1 victory Sunday afternoon. Jake Smith had the first hat trick in club history, adding a pair of assists.

Cole Stallard and Jake Billings had two goals each, and defenseman Billy Constantinou had four assists. Goalie Corbin Kaczperski had 39 saves for the win in net, after notching his first ECHL victory Friday night.

The Heartlanders are 11-17-3-1 for 26 standings points, seventh and last in the ECHL’s Central Division. But just two points behind the sixth-place Indy Fuel.

This week

The Heartlanders host the Kansas City Mavericks at Xtream Arena on Friday night at 7. The clubs have met seven other times already this season, with the Heartlanders winning four.

Iowa then hits the road for games Saturday night and Sunday afternoon against the Indy Fuel in Indianapolis.

The RoughRiders have a home-and-home weekend series with the Madison Capitols. Friday night’s game is at ImOn Ice (7:05 opening faceoff), with Saturday night’s game in Wisconsin.

Madison is coached by former RoughRiders assistant Tom Upton.

Comments: (319)-398-8258, jeff.johnson@thegazette.com