Iowa Heartlanders provide some morning magic

CORALVILLE - I! I believe! I believe that! I believe that we! I believe that we will win! I believe that we will win! I believe that we will win!

Roughly 1,500 kids enthusiastically yelled those words in the first period of Wednesday morning’s ECHL tilt between the Iowa Heartlanders and Kalamazoo Wings at Xtream Arena.

Let’s go Landers! Let’s go Landers! Let’s go Landers!

That and the ensuing rhythmic claps came a bit later from the local elementary school students who took part in Field Trip Day at the rink. They arrived early, were orderly, definitely full throated and filled about seven sections on an end of the arena.

Iowa won 5-1. A memorable day.

“Today was a rousing success,” proclaimed David Fine, Director of Communications for the Heartlanders and the club’s broadcaster. “These were mostly fifth-graders today. The hope is next year we’ll add fourth-graders and have 3,000 kids here. Then 4,500 the year after that.“

“5! 4! 3! 2! 1!”

Those were the end-of-period countdown shrieks from the youngsters attending Field Trip Day, Kids Day or however you want to specifically label a promotion many minor league hockey clubs conduct as a way to indoctrinate the game to youth and boost attendance mid-week. This was the third time Kalamazoo has been involved in one this season.

It’s not just an ECHL thing. Teams like the Iowa Wild in the higher-level American Hockey League have their version in Des Moines.

Opening faceoff Wednesday morning was a bright-and-early 10:35. Attendance was listed as 1,932, so it was pretty much just the kids and the teams.

“It was really loud,” said Heartlanders forward Logan Nelson. “It was tough to hear out there sometimes. It was really cool. You could tell the energy on our bench was up. The boys were loving it.”

Nelson was a Division III college player at Wisconsin-Stout who was just signed to an ECHL contract after playing this season for Quad City of the lower-level Southern Professional Hockey League. This was his first game, and he scored a goal in it.

“Means the world to me,” Nelson said. “I’ve worked and skated for the last 22 years trying to get to this point in my life. So this is very special.”

Oh, baby, why don't you just meet me in the middle?! I'm losing my mind just a little! So why don't you just meet me in the middle?!

They knew exactly what songs to play Wednesday over the PA, as evidenced by the karaoke-esque singing the kids provided to pop song “The Middle” by Zedd, Maren Morris and Grey. The theme to “SpongeBob SquarePants“ on the video board was a big hit, as was playing ”Baby Shark“ during a Beard Cam promotion during a stoppage in play.

“Nice to see a lot of people in the crowd,” said Tyler Busch of the Heartlanders. “They were bringing the energy. Looked like they had a lot of fun, too, so glad they were all able to make it.”

Busch had a hat trick: one goal coming 5-on-5, one on the power play and one into an empty net. He must hope every game the rest of the way is playing in the morning,

“Honestly once you get your skates on, it just feels like a normal game,” he said.

Boo!! Boo!!

With the obligatory thumbs-down sign, of course, from the kids after Kalamazoo scored its lone goal late in the second period. Hunter Jones played a strong game in net, and T.J. Fergus also had a goal for the Heartlanders (5-9-6-1, 17 standings points), who lost all five games in a two-week road trip to Canada that preceded this unique matinee.

The final four of those losses came in overtime, believe it or not.

“We were really pleased with the way we played up in Canada,” said Heartlanders Coach Derek Damon. “We left Canada a better hockey team than we went to Canada. I think you could see that (today) the way we play our game. We played a solid, sound game, and the structure was there. Jonesy was really good today as well.”

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