Corridor Cross Checks: Iowa Heartlanders win 3 games, Cedar Rapids RoughRiders lose 3 games

CEDAR RAPIDS — So you’re saying there’s a chance.

Realistically not much of one for the Iowa Heartlanders to make the ECHL playoffs. But the club is playing good hockey right now.

The Heartlanders swept Wichita in three games last week at Xtream Arena: 2-1, 3-2 and 2-1, in that order. Iowa has given up three or fewer goals in its last six games.

Pavel Novak scored a power-play goal with 3:35 left for the winning goal in Friday night’s victory. Novak had two more goals in Saturday’s 3-2 victory.

Liam Coughlin and Casey Dornbach had Iowa’s goals in the Sunday win.

Peyton Jones stopped 61 of 64 pucks to win the first two games. Hunter Jones had 24 saves in Sunday’s game.

The Joneses are the team’s goaltenders right now since Drew DeRidder, a former Cedar Rapids RoughRiders player, signed a PTO (Player Tryout Contract) with the Rochester Americans of the American Hockey League.

DeRidder had a 9-6-4 record, 2.84 goals against average and .914 saves percentage for the Heartlanders.

Iowa has signed three players recently who have completed their NCAA college careers.

Center Jonny Sorenson played three seasons at the University of Minnesota and two at Alaska-Fairbanks. He has a goal and three points in his first six professional games.

Winger Jack Perbix played three seasons at Minnesota, one at Western Michigan and one at Northern Michigan. He also played junior hockey in the United States Hockey League for the United States National Team Development Program, Des Moines and Green Bay.

Winger Riley Hughes played four seasons at Northestern University and another at Ohio State.

The Heartlanders play three games this week at Kansas City against the Mavericks. Game times are 7:05 Wednesday night, 7:35 Friday night and 6:35 Saturday night.

Iowa has a 26-29-6-2 record for 60 standings points. It is in seventh and last place in the ECHL’s Central Division, 11 points back of Kalamazoo for fourth place and the final playoff spot in the division.

The Heartlanders have nine regular-season games remaining.

Cedar Rapids RoughRiders

It’s getting away from the RoughRiders.

The United States Hockey League club dropped three games this past weekend: 3-1 at home to Waterloo, 5-0 at Chicago and 3-2 at Green Bay. They have lost four in a row.

Hans-Martin Ulvebne had C.R.’s lone goal against Waterloo. The Riders took a 1-0 lead to the third period but gave up three goals, including the game winner for the Black Hawks with 1:13 left.

Cedar Rapids had just 17 shots on goal, eight combined the final two periods, against Chicago. The Steel broke the game open with four second-period goals.

Green Bay scored the first three goals Sunday. Caleb Mahar and Aiden Welch had third-period goals for the RoughRiders, but it wasn’t enough.

Cedar Rapids has a 23-26-5-2 record for 53 standings points. That places it in seventh place in the Eastern Conference, four points back of Chicago for sixth place and the final available playoff spot in the division.

The RoughRiders have six regular-season games remaining. That includes back-to-back homers this coming weekend against Muskegon.

That’d be Friday night at 7:05 and Saturday night at 7:05.

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