Riders fall to Steel on Halloween

The Cedar Rapids Rough Riders were defeated by the Chicago Steel 5-6 on Saturday evening. The game winning goal was scored with only four seconds left in the game.

A disappointing finish at home in front of 1,300 fans. Hopefully this doesn't become another season where the team constantly wins on the road and then can't put on a good show at home.

If that's the case I don't see the organization succeeding this year. Losses=Lots of Empty seats. That would be a shame to see. Attendance is already down league wide and it'd be horrible to pull in less than 1,000 fans per game average.

SCORING SUMMARY

Period 1

Cedar Rapids - Eric Robinson (unassisted) 3:11 Chicago - Alex Krushelnyski (Greg Wolfe, Jake Chelios) 5:50 Cedar Rapids - Stephen Collins (Nolan Zajac) 7:11 Cedar Rapids - Peter Sakaris (Zach Lehrke) 7:47 Chicago - Mac Olson (Jay Camper, Theo DiPauli) 19:20

Period 2

Chicago - Mark Anthoine (Sahir Gill) 5:42 Cedar Rapids - Zach Lehrke (powerplay) (Bryce Aneloski, Stephen Collins) 11:09 Chicago - Mark Anthoine (Andrei Kuchin) 13:13 Cedar Rapids - Jordan DiGiando (Zach Lehrke) 13:43

Period 3

Chicago - Greg Wolfe (Jake Chelios, Patrick Raley) 4:43 Chicago - Dan Kolomatis (powerplay) (Mark Anthoine, Andrei Kuchin) 19:56

PENALTIES

Period 1

Chicago - Jay Camper - (Roughing), 2 min, 8:23 Chicago - Andrew Schmit - (Holding), 2 min, 17:30

Period 2

Cedar Rapids - Nick Lappin - (Charging), 2 min, 7:20 Chicago - Zack Rall - (Hooking), 2 min, 10:16

Period 3

Chicago - Dan Kolomatis - (Tripping), 2 min, 0:29 Chicago - Andrei Kuchin - (Roughing), 2 min, 8:54 Cedar Rapids - Jayson Megna - (Roughing), 2 min, 8:54 Cedar Rapids - Chad Hudson - (Tripping), 2 min, 9:15 Cedar Rapids - Peter Sakaris - (High Sticking), 2 min, 13:57 Chicago - Zack Rall - (Interference), 2 min, 15:11 Cedar Rapids - Stephen Collins - (High Sticking Double Minor), 4 min, 16:35

Riders shut out Chicago

The Cedar Rapids Rough Riders defeated the Chicago Steel 2-0 on Friday night at the Chicago Edge Ice Arena in front of 1700 fans. The game sheet is as follows:

POWERPLAYS
Cedar Rapids 0 for 2 : Chicago 0 for 3

SCORING SUMMARY
Period 1
(no scoring)
Period 2
Cedar Rapids - Sam Warning (penalty shot) 0:47
Period 3
Cedar Rapids - Justin Kovacs (Nick Lappin) 16:03

PENALTIES
Period 1
Chicago - Mark Adams - (High Sticking), 2 min, 5:21
Period 2
Cedar Rapids - Zach Lehrke - (Interference), 2 min, 9:36Chicago - Mark Adams - (Holding), 2 min, 16:38
Period 3
Cedar Rapids - Eric Robinson - (Interference), 2 min, 4:41Cedar Rapids - Jared Beers - (Tripping), 2 min, 16:51

The Riders return to The Stable this evening to take on the Steel once again. Puck drops at 7:05 PM. Fans are also encouraged to wear costumes!

Photoshop Project

For my publication design final project I have chosen to revamp the USHL's logo and 'theme.' I'm not anywhere close to done and these pieces aren't perfect yet, but let me know what you think!

Weekend Preview

The Cedar Rapids Rough Riders are away on Friday night to take on the Chicago Steel. They return to The Stable to face off with Chicago again on Saturday. Game time is 7:05 PM with "happy hour" beginning at 5:45 PM.


The University of Iowa GOLD travel to Webster Groves, Missouri to take on St. Louis University at 8:00 PM Friday and 1:55 PM Saturday.


The University of Iowa BLACK also are traveling this weekend. The team is heading to Bloomington, Illinois to take on the ISU-Ice Hawks. Game times are 9:20 PM Friday and 3:20 PM Saturday.

Gender in Sports

Today in my sports writing class we've been reading about a topic that really hits home for me: gender in the sports world. With all of the negative things that I had to deal with for being a female hockey player when the sport was just picking up in Iowa, I was really interested in reading the findings of John Vincent.

In his piece entitled "Equitable Media Coverage of Female and Male Athletes: Is there a solution?" Vincent examined newspapers to see: 1.) How many stories on female athletes where there? 2.) What were the lengths of the pieces? 3.) Where were the pieces placed in the news paper [front page, back page, inside, etc.]? 4.) Size and number of photographs. 5.) The manner in which the females were written about [With sexual innuendo? Twisting their 'gender role'? He then compared these findings to those he discovered with men's sports.

Vincent found that when women are placed in the newspaper many of the stories are written for a heterosexual male readership who finds the woman sexually desirable (IE: Anna Kournikova) or they are in the fields of stereotypically 'female' sports like gymnastics, tennis and swimming. He concluded that these facts may affect girls in a negative way because they try to fit into the same type of picture of sexualized athletic perfection rather than seeing the female athletes who are strong and pushing gender boundaries.

While I applaud Vincent for his work and dedication, I think that it is unlikely that women's sports will ever receive the same attention as men's sports as a whole. Newspapers are dwindling and they need to be writing and publishing stories that people care about and want to read. The sad truth is, a lot of people just don't care about women's sports enough to want to read a half page story about them (unless something miraculous has occurred or it's a 'touchy-feely' people story that makes you go awwww). Newspapers are a business. What sells is going to be placed at the top and what doesn't may be mentioned, but it will be placed on the inside of the section under the fold.

Hockey Tidbit: Pucks!

Ever wondered how and where pucks are made? Watch this video below to find out!



Crazy, huh? I can't say I've ever really seen how a puck is made so I find it pretty interesting. I never would've thought that it would be such a complicated process.

Iowa City West preview

Inexperienced and ‘short’ by standards of Varsity high school basketball in the Mississippi Valley Conference, Iowa City West’s fleet of young players have a lot of work before their opening games against non-conference Fairfield on Nov. 24 and North Scott on Nov. 28.

Mostly comprised of players that have yet to experience the level of play against powerhouses such as cross-town rival City High, Linn-Mar and Cedar Rapids Kennedy, Head Coach BJ Mayer knows that his team will have to resort to different style of play to make up for their weaknesses in the defensive zone.

“We’re going to be playing a lot deeper this season,” Mayer said. “Our goal is to create a more up-tempo game and to get up and down the floor pretty well. We just want to be able to wear teams down.”

Last season the Women of Troy were lead by Emma Kittle Krieger who led the team (16-6) in points (351) and played a major role in West’s run for the 2008 conference tournament championship. Though Krieger was a vital part to last year’s success, Iowa City West Head Coach BJ Mayer believes that this year’s returners will fill the position she vacated.

"We have some good juniors coming back:Mackenzie Reed, Kristin Fomon and Courtney Fritz,” Mayer said. “We’re really going to look for them to be our leaders and we also have some kids that are sophomores that we’re excited about including Tatum Klein.”

The sophomores, coming off last season’s 20-1 record, are described by Mayer as a ‘resilient bunch,’ they will be taught work well alongside the senior girls in the hopes of having a run for the playoffs and the state tournament.

“In sports it’s really difficult to get to the next level until you’ve been there once,” Mayer said. “To get to the game before state was a huge confidence builder last year and the players that are returning are going to work towards getting there again this season.”