Finally an overtime win for the Iowa Heartlanders

CORALVILLE - You play a ton of games that go beyond regulation, it’s way better to win them. Duh, right?

Perhaps the worm has turned that way, as they say, for the Iowa Heartlanders.

Yuki Miura’s goal in overtime Saturday night gave the Heartlanders a 2-1 win over Kalamazoo at Xtream Arena. It was a forehand, backhand beauty 27 seconds in that allowed Iowa to come away with wins in two of three games against the Wings.

The Heartlanders have played a ECHL-high 10 games that have gone to OT or a shootout this season and have won just three of them. They had four straight overtime losses two weeks ago on an elongated five-game trip to Canada against Trois-Rivieres and Newfoundland.

“At the end of the day, you need two points,” Heartlanders Coach Derek Damon said. “At the same time, we took points in four out of five games (in Canada). Every point matters, especially down the stretch. But these points matter in December, too. Proud of the way our guys gave effort up in Canada. They battled.

“Couple of bad bounces have gone against us in overtime. Yet you make your own bounces, you make your own luck.”

Iowa beat Kalamazoo last Wednesday, 5-1, then lost to the Wings last Friday, 4-1. It is 6-10-6-1 for 19 points.

That’s seventh and last in the Central Division, though the Heartlanders have continued to play competitive hockey. Indy leads the division with 35 points, with Cincinnati second with 34.

The Heartlanders will get to know Independence, Mo., very well. They play there against the Kansas City Mavericks on Wednesday and Friday nights, then again next week, Friday and Saturday Dec. 30 and 31.

Kansas City is 9-10-3 for 21 points, fifth in the seven-team Mountain Division. Cole Stallard leads the Heartlanders with nine goals in 22 games, while rookie Michael Pastujov leads the team with 16 points (in 16 games).

THE CEDAR RAPIDS ROUGHRIDERS

It was almost a great weekend for the United States Hockey League club. Almost.

The RoughRiders shellacked the older of the two United States National Team Development Program’s two clubs at home Friday night, 6-1. They led at Green Bay the following night going to the third period, 4-2, only to give up three goals and lose, 5-4.

Green Bay’s winning goal came with under a minute left in the game.

Zaccharya Wisdom had a game to remember Friday night, scoring four goals. Brendan Fitzgerald and Dylan Hryckowian had three assists apiece.

Fitzgerald had four more assists Saturday night, giving him a whopping seven in the two games. Riley Bassen, Andy Moore and Dominic Elliott each had their first goals of the season.

The RoughRiders are 10-10-2-1 for 23 standings points. That places them seventh out of eight teams in the tightly packed Eastern Conference, yet just six points out of second place.

RoughRiders defenseman Eric Pohlkamp was part of a United States team of USHL players that won the World Junior ‘A’ Challenge tournament last week. The U.S. beat Canada East, 5-2, in the gold medal game.

Pohlkamp had a great tournament, scoring five goals and adding two assists in four games. That included a hat trick on one game.

The RoughRiders are on a break until after Christmas.

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