Iowa Heartlanders rally to win in OT, but that’s just part of the story

CORALVILLE — They’ve been to ... Fort Wayne, Rapid City, Iowa City, Cincinnati, Wheeling, Kalamazoo, Wichita. They’ve been everywhere, man.

But Sunday afternoon, the Iowa Heartlanders went nowhere, man.

The ECHL hockey club was stranded on its team bus for six hours as it tried to make it back to the Corridor in icy and snowy conditions following a weekend set of games in Tulsa, Okla. A massive accident involving cars and semi-trucks that included fatalities closed a highway the Heartlanders were traveling on not too far outside the city.

The bus finally got going and finished the nine-hour trip home, pulling into the Xtream Arena parking lot about 6 a.m. Monday. Then a mere 10 hours later, Iowa actually played a game, its third in four days, rallying to beat Cincinnati, 5-4, on Maxim Cajkovic’s overtime goal.

“Unbelievable gutty effort by the guys,” said Heartlanders Coach Derek Damon. “Could have easily mailed it in, blamed it on the travel and everything that has transpired the last 36 hours ... Proud of these guys.”

Sitting on a highway for six hours was just part of the travel-woes story for Iowa. It actually attempted to depart Tulsa after its Saturday night game, only to have the underside of its bus catch on fire.

It was some sort of break malfunction. Team equipment manager Greg Angus had to take a fire extinguisher to put out the blaze.

Thus it was back to the team hotel for a few hours of sleep for everyone before things were fixed. Crazy stuff.

“It was an emotional roller coaster, to say the least,” said Heartlanders goaltender Drew DeRidder, who faced 49 shots Sunday, the most given up in team history. “We’re thinking already that it’s going to be a tough trip home. Then the bus goes down, and it’s like ‘Oh, no. What do we do now?’

“We end up in the same hotel rooms. They hadn’t even cleaned the rooms. Spend the night, didn’t leave until noon the next day. It’s like ‘This is gonna suck. We’ve got a nine-hour bus ride.’ Then all of a sudden, we’re all asleep, and we feel the bus coming to a stop. We’re there for six or seven hours.”

Just another in a long line of infamous hockey stories you always hear. One that those involved will never forget.

“It’s one of those things where in the moment it sucked,” DeRidder said. “But looking back at it, it was awesome. So much fun. Playing cards, talking, having fun with each other. It’s one hell of a story to tell. It’s one of those stories you hear on ‘Spitting Chiclets’ (podcast). Guys that go overseas and play, one of those crazy stories those guys might tell. This was definitely one of those.”

Iowa (14-16-6-1, 34 standings points) scored three times in the third period, including back-to-backers from Justin Michaelian and Cajkovic to tie the game at 4. Cajkovic and Davis Koch came down on a 2-on-0 rush early in the seven-minute, 3-on-3 overtime, with Cajkovic sniping a shot into the top corner of the net past Cincinnati goalie Olof Lindblom to win it.

“It’s easy for somebody to say ‘Oh, man. It’s too difficult. Poor us,’” Damon said. “But credit to the guys. That’s the character we have in that locker room.”

Comments: (319)-398-8258, jeff.johnson@thegazette.com