Coralville, Iowa- It was a festive night at Xtream Arena to welcome the return of Heartlanders hockey. While Coach Damon has called for stronger openings to the season following struggles from last year, but this was not what was in the cards for today as Iowa fell 4-2 to the Rapid City Rush.
Hunter Jones’ chest save seven seconds in, and his three more early saves were not enough to keep Rapid City’s Jimmy Soper and Alex Aleardi out of the net in the first five minutes.
At the halfway mark in the first period, returner Nick Campoli stole the puck in the attacking zone and found late-season standout Jesse Jacques to open scoring for the season. Jacques stuck again at the end of the second period to bring the game back within one.
While Iowa led the game in shots (36-26), Rapid City got a goal with 1:44 left in the game against the momentum of play to put the game out of reach for Iowa. Former Heartlanders Logan Nelson and T.J. Fergus were kept relatively quiet for the Rush as well.
There were three major positives to take away from this game.
- Jesse Jacques and the Fourth Line. Jacques played 11 games for Iowa last season and had four goals and three assists. Today, he scored two goals off the fourth line and shows no sign of stopping. Nick Campoli came back from missing most of last season and was the go-to guy for Jacques.
- Hunter Jones, beyond just his early saves, is a dependable goalkeeper. Rapid City may have scored four goals, but this should not be reflected negatively on him.
- Aggressive possessions in the offensive zone. Regardless of who was on the ice, Iowa was attacking. Unfortunately, they were only able to get the two goals, but there were many more bad bounces or incredible saves from Rapid City’s Matt Radomsky.
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