Corridor Cross Checks: Home blues for Cedar Rapids RoughRiders

CEDAR RAPIDS — Sometimes up is down, white is black, forwards is backwards, cats are dogs.

There’s no real way to fully understand and explain how the Cedar Rapids RoughRiders have gone about things this United States Hockey League season so far.

The club has been aces on the road. Pretty much quad aces in poker terms.

The Riders are 7-2-0-1. Only Fargo (10-2-0-0) and Green Bay (11-2-1-0) are statistically better, and they lead their respective conferences: Fargo the Western and Green Bay the Eastern.

Fargo has the best record in the USHL at 18-2-1-0.

But now the not-so-good news. Cedar Rapids has a 1-9-2-0 record at ImOn Ice.

Every other team in the league has at least two wins on home ice. The worst two teams in the USHL standings points wise are Omaha and Lincoln, and they have three and two home Ws, respectively.

Just a weird deal.

The RoughRiders lost twice at ImOn Ice this past weekend, falling Friday night to Lincoln (5-1) and Saturday night to Sioux Falls (7-1). Cedar Rapids has lost six games in a row overall, five in regulation, yet are still in possession of a playoff spot (if the season ended Tuesday).

They are 8-11-2-1 for 19 points, which is sixth in the eight-team East. The club has a chance to get back on track at home this weekend, when it hosts Youngstown on Friday and Saturday nights (7:05 opening faceoff).

A three-in-three weekend concludes Sunday with a game at Madison.

Cedar Rapids had its leading goal scorer leave the team a couple of weeks ago, which may or may not be exacerbating this recent stretch in which the RoughRiders have scored five goals in their last four games, three in one game. Jack Larrigan and Ryan Philbrick had C.R.’s lone goals last weekend.

Iowa Heartlanders

The ECHL’s Iowa Heartlanders ended a three-in-three road trip last weekend with an uplifting 5-4, shootout win at Toledo. Odeen Tufto and Davis Koch were successful in the shootout, with goaltender Peyton Jones stopping both Toledo attempts.

The game was a wild one, as the Heartlanders took a 4-0 lead midway through the game, thanks to goals from Koch (two), David Spacek and Brett Budgell. But Toledo tied it with four straight goals, including three on the power play.

Iowa lost the previous night to Toledo (5-3) and Friday night at Cincinnati (6-2). The Heartlanders are on the back end of a brutal 10-game road trip that concludes this weekend with games at Kalamazoo (Friday and Saturday nights) and Fort Wayne (Sunday afternoon).

The Heartlanders are in the thick of things in a very tightly packed Central Division that is separated by just 11 standings points first place to last place. Toledo leads with 25 points, with Iowa second at 21, followed by Cincinnati (20), Wheeling (19), Indy (18), Fort Wayne (18) and Kalamazoo (14).

Iowa has played the most games in the division. Forward Koch is among six players who sit second in the ECHL in goals with 12.

The leader is Idaho’s Mark Rassell with 15.

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