Subscriber Services
Our Journalists
Sports Desk
Our Columnists
Our Writers
Our Writers
Our Photojournalists
Data
More Gazette
Other Links
FOLLOW US
Share this article:
Subscriber Services
Our Journalists
Sports Desk
Our Columnists
Our Writers
Our Writers
Our Photojournalists
Data
More Gazette
Other Links
FOLLOW US
Home / Sports / Minor League Sports
Thursday marks the 25th anniversary of the Cedar Rapids RoughRiders beating the Rochester Mustangs in a shootout in front of a standing-room-only crowd of 4,104 fans at the brand new Cedar Rapids Ice Arena
Jan. 8, 2025 1:01 pm, Updated: Jan. 8, 2025 1:20 pm
The Gazette offers audio versions of articles using Instaread. Some words may be mispronounced.
CEDAR RAPIDS – He’s an investment banker in New York City, his hockey career well in the rear-view mirror.
Now 44 years old, he was just a teenager during his one-year stay in Cedar Rapids. That came a quarter of a century ago.
A lot of life has happened for Erik Eaton between then and now. Yet there are things, specific things about his short time as a defenseman with the Cedar Rapids RoughRiders that he still recalls.
Including January 9th, 2000.
“Our sixth win of the season?” Eaton asked in a text exchange earlier this week. “In a shootout against Rochester? 4-3?”
Yup, yup and yup. He nailed them all.
As difficult as it is to believe, it has been exactly 25 years since the RoughRiders played their first-ever game at the Cedar Rapids Ice Arena, which is now known as ImOn Ice Arena.
They beat the Rochester Mustangs, who no longer exist, in front of a full-throated, standing-room-only crowd of 4,104. Cedar Rapids won the shootout, 3-2.
“Time goes by quick,” said Mark Carlson.
He is the only head coach and general manager the United States Hockey League franchise has ever had, a guy who has developed countless college and professional players.
“I remember it was a sold-out crowd, and the shootout went five rounds,” said Eaton. “And my best friend, God rest his soul, scored top shelf to win it.”
Eaton’s best friend was Gerry Hickey. A fan favorite for his hard-nosed style and willingness to drop the gloves, Hickey died in March 2016 in his hometown of Boston at the age of 35.
He had the first goal ever at the arena, added another later in the game and finished his pseudo-hat trick with the shootout winner.
“I still remember his move,” Carlson said. “The guys ended up calling it ‘Kick Start My Heart’ after the song (by Motley Crue). We still play that song a lot here. He was a right shot, so he would kick his left leg out behind him, make a move and shoot. He used it a lot.”
Despite being a Midwestern city of 150,000, Cedar Rapids never had an indoor ice facility until this one was constructed. Northern Wisconsin timber mogul William “Butch” Johnson got the ball (or puck) rolling by promising he’d move his USHL junior team from Mason City if an arena was built for it.
Construction began in late summer 1999, meaning the RoughRiders had to practice every day 25 miles down the road at the Coral Ridge Mall in Coralville. They spent their first 25 games of the 1999-2000 season on the road, with a couple of “home” games in Waterloo and Cloquet, Minn., sprinkled in.
A 5-20 record wasn’t a surprise.
“We were just living on a bus, basically,” said Chris Pedota, a defenseman on the inaugural team. “I used to bring pillows and blankets and comforters. Some guys would sleep on the floor, some guys would sleep across the seats. It was tough, man, a tough first half of the year. But I think we knew that the second half of the year was going to be unbelievable playing every friggin’ game at home.”
Carlson said he remembered the home opener being delayed a week because arena construction hadn’t progressed enough to have a game. The main NHL-sized ice sheet was a priority, with completion of the adjacent Olympic-sized sheet later.
Players helped the project along by installing seats, as did Carlson, his mother, father, aunt and uncle, who came in from New Jersey. The team’s locker room was not ready for the home opener, with the team having to use what is now the visiting locker room.
The RoughRiders never even skated on the ice of their new arena until pre-game warmups for the opener.
“I remember in warmups that they put these orange cones out on the ice in certain areas just to make sure that the ice was OK,” Carlson said.
It was slushy in spots, but good enough to play.
“I remember the excitement leading up to the game in the locker room because it was our first game,” Pedota said. “We were literally building the rink ourselves in a sense, putting seats in a couple of weeks before. I just remember coming out for the first time to the crowd there. It was amazing, especially as a 19-year-old kid. It was a crazy, crazy feeling and experience.”
Jesse Modahl of Rochester actually had the first goal in the arena, scoring midway through the first period. Goals by Hickey and Anthony Sedler gave Cedar Rapids a 2-1 lead.
The second period featured three power-play goals, two from Rochester that created a 3-3 tie. The teams went scoreless in the third period and overtime.
Successful attempts from Corey Carlson and Micah Wouters put the RoughRiders up early in the best-of-five shootout, 2-0, with Rochester coming back to make it 2-2. Goaltender Todd Marr stopped Rochester’s fifth shootout attempt, leading to Hickey’s heroics.
“To get the win was just something that we wanted to do. We needed to do it,” Hickey told The Gazette postgame. “I’ve never seen anything like this. I played in high school last year, in front of friends and parents and not many other people. I’ve never played in front of a crowd like this. This is a different experience. This is awesome.”
“I believed in our team, and I believed in what we were doing. I had a lot of games under my belt by that (game),” Carlson said. “I felt then like I still do today. That was my first year, but I was like ‘Man, this is incredible.’ I still feel that way today. Every day here, every game here.”
Carlson brought in Marr at the holiday break that season from Northeastern University. The new goaltender wasn’t playing for the Huskies and wanted to get some games in.
He hadn’t practiced at all leading up to the opening home game because of a case of chicken pox.
“So I had to make a decision, knowing the game was sold out and it was our first game in here, on who our goaltender was going to be,” Carlson said. “Went with Todd Marr, he played great and won the game.”
“That was so exciting,” Marr told The Gazette after the game. “The fan support tonight was amazing. I didn’t expect anything like this. It was just wild. The fans were great. I hope we gave them their money’s worth … This was loud. This was fun.”
The opening-night crowd was one that cheered at the right times, booed at the right times, gave the RoughRiders a definitive home-ice advantage. Again, even though hockey was a foreign thing to most Cedar Rapidians.
“I remember it being a good game. The place was loud,” Pedota said. “One of the things that stick out about the game to me was Brett MacKinnon’s fight.”
Fighting was much more commonplace back then (it’s a 15-minute penalty now), and MacKinnon had told his teammates he wanted to be in the first fight ever at the arena.
“He got his eye busted open, but he ended up breaking the kid’s nose, beating the kid up,” Pedota said. “I remember him skating off the ice with his jersey off, his face covered in blood. That was definitely a big standout thing in my head from that night.
“Then the biggest one was Gerry scoring the winner in the shootout. Going top shelf when he used to do that kick-start move, he called it, with his leg, then going shelf with it. Kick start my heart.”
Pedota also works in New York City, managing real estate for a bank. Eaton was best man in his wedding nine months ago, and the two live only about 20 minutes from each other: Pedota on Long Island and Eaton in Westchester County.
They have plans to meet up for supper Saturday night, with the conversation certainly turning at some point to January 9th, 2000.
“It was a great group,” Carlson said. “It was a really tough – physically tough and mentally tough – bunch of guys who became very tight knit as the season went along. Set the foundation here, for sure, yeah.”
“I remember us as teammates talking about what we were going to name that place,” Pedota said. “There were all kinds of names being thrown around. I don’t remember who said it first, but I remember the name ‘The Stable’ came up, and we were all like ‘That’s it!’ And it stuck … It was a cumulative team effort coming up with that name.”
Pedota was happy to hear the Ice Arena still is affectionately known as The Stable all these years later.
“Mark and I are close friends to this day,” Eaton said about Carlson. “I coach my son, who is 13, and he has aspirations of being a RoughRider one day.”
Comments: (319)-398-8258, jeff.johnson@thegazette.com
Sports Reporter, The Gazette
Prep Sports & Minor League Sports Reporter. Get the Prep Sports Newsletter.
John Steppe
Mike Hlas
Mike Hlas
Minor League Sports Dec. 16, 2024 5:18 pm22d ago
Minor League Sports Dec. 9, 2024 4:54 pm29d ago
Minor League Sports Dec. 2, 2024 5:46 pm36d ago
Minor League Sports Dec. 24, 2024 5:32 pm14d ago
Minor League Sports Dec. 12, 2024 1:13 am27d ago
Minor League Sports Nov. 26, 2024 2:04 pm42d ago
Iowa Basketball 12m ago12m ago
Iowa Basketball 1h ago1h ago
Iowa Basketball 13m ago13m ago
Higher Ed 90m ago90m ago
Crime and Courts 50m ago50m ago
K-12 Education Jan. 8, 2025 7:20 am6h ago
FOLLOW US
The Gazette has been informing Iowans with in-depth local news coverage and insightful analysis for over 140 years. Support our award-winning, independent journalism with a subscription today.
© 2025 The Gazette | All Rights Reserved.
