Iowa Heartlanders lose in OT, though continue improvement

CORALVILLE - In a sense, Ben Sokay is the Iowa Heartlanders as a whole.

Learning the pro game, having to absorb some very hard checks along the boards, in a manner of speaking, yet getting better. Definitely getting better.

“Obviously we’re a young team. A lot of rookies in the room,” the Heartlanders forward said, after his team’s 6-5 overtime loss to the Kansas City Mavericks before 1,819 fans Sunday afternoon at Xtream Arena. “We’re just trying to get one -percent better each day. That’s all you can ask for ... I think we’ve made tremendous improvement from where we’ve started, but there is definitely still a ways to go.”

Sokay had a pair of goals, including one with 1:27 left in regulation that allowed Iowa to salvage a standings point. Kansas City won it 2:43 into the seven-minute OT with a 4-on-3 power-play goal by Daric Angeli, also his second of the game.

The Mavericks scored three unanswered in the third period to come back from a 4-2 deficit. The teams play again Monday night at Xtream Arena.

“There are still some growing pains,” said Heartlanders Coach Gerry Fleming. “Some nights we do some things really well. We just don’t consistently do them well throughout the game. Some games we do. We really do. There are flashes of consistency in our game, and I think as we go along here, it’s got to be more prevalent.”

It was never going to be easy on the ice for this expansion club, as other ECHL teams had a base of returning players. To go along with that general inexperience, the Heartlanders also have dealt with more than their fair share of injuries, COVID-19, and a ton of player movement to and from the Iowa Wild of the American Hockey League, the top minor league in the sport.

Iowa won its inaugural game over Kansas City back in November but lost its next seven, being outscored by a very wide margin. Things have since stabilized: the Heartlanders (8-13-3-1, 20 standings points) going 4-2-1 over their last seven games.

“Give these guys credit,” Fleming said. “We’ve had pretty much a different lineup pretty much every game from the beginning of the season here. It’s not easy, these guys have fought through it.”

Sokay is a really good representation of this team. The 24-year-old Canadian played four years of college hockey at Niagara University, but sat out all last season because of the pandemic.

He was offered an ECHL deal with the Heartlanders late summer/early fall and jumped on it. He has four goals in 22 games, someone who has been a regular on the team’s penalty kill.

“I’m Canadian, so we were shutdown and in quarantine the majority of (last winter),” Sokay said. “When I could, I would work out as much as possible. I’d skate as much as possible as well. Other than that, I kind of focused on this point right now. Just trying to visualize it in my head each night going to bed, thinking about it.”

Cole Stallard, Kris Bennett and Chad Billings also had goals for the Heartlanders. Starting goaltender Trevin Kozlowski, who has been great of late, was pulled midway through the game because he was feeling ill.

Fleming said it is not COVID related, as Kozlowski tested negative. Three other Iowa players were placed on the Commissioner’s Exempt List before Sunday’s game, which is a sign they did not test negative.

“I think we sat back a little bit too much, took our foot off the pedal,” Sokay said. “Gave them too much time and space, and they were able to come in, beat our forwards up ice and then kind of capitalize on their chances.”

Here is the official gamesheet.

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