Corridor Cross Checks: Pavel Novak’s return to the ice with Iowa Heartlanders

CORALVILLE — He was here so briefly, you didn’t really get a chance to hear his story. But it needs to be heard.

Pavel Novak played the first weekend of the ECHL season with the Iowa Heartlanders before getting promoted to the American Hockey League’s Iowa Wild. Those are great accomplishments considering everything.

The 21-year-old winger from Czechia didn’t play hockey at all last season after being diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma during blood work done as part of a physical he took as he was about to sign a contract with the NHL’s Minnesota Wild.

Novak was a fifth-round draft pick of the club in 2020 after the first of two high-scoring seasons for Kelowna of the major junior Western Hockey League.

“It definitely makes you stronger,” Novak said. “Last year, I just kind of slowed down from my usual. I started working out slowly, starting practicing slowly. We talked, my doctor in Minnesota wanted me to take a year off because chemo is hard, and you have to recover from that.”

Novak was declared cancer free just over a year ago. He attended Minnesota’s training camp and was assigned to the Heartlanders for the start of their season two weeks ago.

He scored a pair of goals and added an assist in his first two pro games before getting the call to head west.

“The kid has a lot of tools,” Heartlanders Coach Derek Damon said. “Being dealt that hand at such a young age, it builds adversity for him. He’s a kid that has a smile on his face, just like Yuki Miura (of the Heartlanders) always does. I see a lot of similarities in their personalities. He’s a happy kid that is just happy to be back at the rink doing something that he loves to do.”

“I’m just enjoying every single moment. It could sound difficult to return (after a year off), but it wasn’t,” Novak said. “To be honest, I just want to work hard and get better every day. I just want to feel it’s me again.”

The Heartlanders lost twice last weekend at Wichita by scores of 4-3 and 4-2. Wichita scored the winning goal in the first game with 6:29 left in the third period and the winner in the second game with 55 seconds left.

Iowa is 0-3-1 in the very early going, having given up exactly four goals in each of its games. It is at Cincinnati for games Friday and Saturday nights.

Cedar Rapids RoughRiders

The Cedar Rapids RoughRiders split a pair of home games last weekend, losing to Des Moines, 6-3, and beating Tri-City the following night (Saturday), 5-2.

Boston College commit Landan Resendes scored a goal in the opening minute of the third period to give Cedar Rapids a 3-2 lead against Des Moines, but the Buccaneers scored four goals after that for the win.

Amine Hajibi, Kason Muscutt and Cade Littler scored consecutive goals to give the RoughRiders a 3-1 lead on Tri-City in the third period. Aiden Welch and Caden Lee (empty net) finished off the Storm with late goals after the Storm had climbed within 3-2.

Littler has seven goals and three assists in 11 games this season to pace C.R. in goal scoring and scoring. Cedar Rapids is 4-6-1 for 9 standings points, which places it seventh out of eight teams in the United States Hockey League’s Eastern Conference.

Dubuque leads the division with 20 points, on a 9-1-1 record. Over in the Western Conference, Fargo has won its first 10 games.

The RoughRiders have a three-in-three road trip this weekend to Sioux City, Lincoln and Des Moines, in that order.

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