Corridor Cross Checks: Iowa Heartlanders have been money this season in close game

CORALVILLE - The ECHL provides a “Daily Report,” which is chock full of individual and team statistics in the league. It’s a treasure trove of information and easy to go down a rabbit hole, of sorts, when you read it.

The Iowa Heartlanders are having the best season of their five-year existence, sitting in second place in the Central Division with a 31-17-4-4 record. That’s good for 70 standings points, just six behind first-place Toledo.

The Heartlanders have that kind of record and point total despite a goal differential of just plus-six. It just doesn’t add up.

Until you dive deeper into the “Daily Report” and come across a category titled “Miscellaneous Overall Team Records.” That’s where everything comes together.

Iowa has played 23 games decided by a goal, whether that be in regulation, overtime or shootout. Its record in those games is 14-1-4-4.

Even when they’re not winning close games, they’re still gathering standings points in them. Hence, second place.

“For us, we’re comfortable playing in these games,” said Heartlander Coach Derek Damon. “So that when we get into close games at crunch time, late in the season and hopefully playoffs, it’s nothing new for us.”

Damon said in preseason that he had built a team that he felt would be able to play well defensively and thus compete in most games. He felt his club would play a lot of close games, and how it did in those close games would dictate how the season would be.

He was right on.

What the Heartlanders are doing is no fluke. It is 6-2-0-1 in nine games against Toledo, which is always one of the Central Division’s powers.

“Sometimes you just match up well against certain teams,” Damon said. “And this year we just seem to match up well with them.”

The Heartlanders went 1-1-1 last week, losing in a shootout at Kalamazoo, 5-4, mid week. Timmy Kent, T.J. Walsh, Jonny Sorenson and Andrew McLean had Iowa’s goals, with K-zoo winning the shootout, 2-0.

The Heartlanders were shutout Saturday night at Indy, 4-0, mustering just 18 shots on goal. But they rebounded Sunday with a 4-2 victory at Indy, getting third-period goals from Kyle Masters (power play) and Yuki Miura (empty net) to break a 2-2 tie.

Iowa is one point ahead of third-place Fort Wayne, which has two games in hand. It’s back to the road for the Heartlanders, with games Friday and Saturday nights at Bloomington.

Cedar Rapids RoughRiders

A pair of games this past weekend at Muskegon played out as expected: low scoring with few shots on goal. The Lumberjacks have allowed the second-fewest goals in the United States Hockey League.

They beat the RoughRiders in both, 3-1, on Friday night and 2-1 on Saturday night. There were only 39 combined shots on goal Friday and 44 Saturday.

Defenseman Maxon Vig actually put C.R. on top Friday night with a goal 6:28 into the second period. But Muskegon tied things a minute later, got a go-ahead goal midway through the third period and added an empty netter late.

Muskegon got goals in the first and third periods to build a 2-0 lead Saturday. Heath Nelson scored a power-play goal at the 11:09 mark of the third, but the Riders could not get the tying goal, losing despite giving up just 15 Muskegon shots on goal.

The RoughRiders are 21-24-1-2 for 45 standings points, 10 points up on both the USNTDP and Chicago Steel for sixth place and the final available playoff spot in the USHL’s Eastern Conference.

It’s a unique three-in-three weekend this weekend for the RoughRiders against Dubuque. The teams play Friday night at ImOn Ice Arena (7:05 opening faceoff), Saturday night at Des Moines (actually West Des Moines) and Sunday afternoon back in Cedar Rapids (4:05 start).

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