Corridor Cross Checks: Keltie Jeri-Leon of Iowa Heartlanders a self-professed “hockey nerd”

CORALVILLE - The biggest actual hockey fan on the Iowa Heartlanders? That’s gotta be Keltie Jeri-Leon.

It’s not really too close.

“I don’t know, I feel like I’m a bit of a hockey nerd,” the 25-year-old forward said. “I love NHL, ever since I was a kid, I’ve watched hockey every single night. I can rattle off probably too many stats. What guys use for curves, stick, tape, all that. It’s nonsense, I guess, but I love hockey. A lot.”

Jeri-Leon lives with teammate Jonny Sorenson, and every night they aren’t playing, their television has some hockey game on it. Make that televisions, as they have two.

“We’ve got a pretty good setup, I’d say,” Jeri-Leon said. “We’ve got two TVs, so there is sports on every single night. Usually it’s a quad feed of hockey games or one or two we’d like to watch.”

Jeri-Leon is a British Columbia native whose five-season junior career included playing for four different clubs in the Western Hockey League. That journeyman pattern has continued in his professional career, as he has played for five different teams in the ECHL, with six games also played in the American Hockey League with Providence and Abbotsford.

His stops in the ECHL have been all over the place: Maine, Wheeling, Rapid City, Savannah and now the Corridor. He has seven goals and six assists this season in 11 games for the Heartlanders.

“I have learned a lot, grown up a lot, matured a lot in my game,” Jeri-Leon said. “Even in pro, I look at it like I’ve gotten a lot of opportunities and I’ve gotten a lot of chances to show myself with organizations. I feel lucky, don’t feel like it was a hindrance or a disappointment. I look at it the opposite way.”

“He loves the game, wants to talk about the game afterwards,” Heartlanders Coach Chuck Weber said. “He identifies his game well, but he has to continue to identify the game of others around him. But he’s still young, only 25.”

Still young and eager to continue playing the sport he loves.

“There aren’t too many people in the world who can say they get paid to play hockey,” Jeri-Leon said. “In the position we are, with the chance to keep moving up leagues, that opportunity is definitely a dream. When I was a kid, if someone would have told me you’re going to get paid to play hockey, I feel like you’re going to say yes, no matter what.”

Cedar Rapids RoughRiders

The RoughRiders are on holiday break with the rest of the United States Hockey League until Dec. 27. They host Sioux City that night.

A very short-handed Cedar Rapids team lost its lone game this past week, at Sioux Falls , 5-2. Nick Romeo and affiliate player Dain Gordon had C.R.’s goals.

Cedar Rapids played with just 10 forwards because of a multitude of injuries and because three players were representing the United States at the Junior World ‘A’ Challenge in Canada and another was representing the country at the Vierumaki Cup in Finland.

The United States won the Junior ‘A’ World Challenge in Quebec with a 5-1 win over Canada West. David Bosco had a goal in the game and two in five tournament games.

Justin Graf had an assist in five games. Goaltender Ryan Cameron played one game and won it, allowing just one goal in it.

The USNTDP U17 team finished third at the Vierumaki Cup, beating Finland, 6-2, in the third-place game. The team lost in the semifinals in overtime to Czechia.

Braiden Scuderi had a goal and four assists in four tournament games.

Cedar Rapids goes into the break with a 15-7-1-2 record and 33 standings points, good for fifth place in a very good eight-team Eastern Conference.

Green Bay leads with 41 points. C.R. has four games in hand on the Gamblers and at least two on the other teams ahead of it in the standings.

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