Sports stats



ECHL Cincinnati Cyclones

Cincinnati Cyclones Weekly

April 9, 2007 - ECHL (ECHL)
Cincinnati Cyclones News Release


COMING UP: The Cincinnati Cyclones (37-29-4-2) open the Kelly Cup playoffs this weekend in the second round of the postseason, as the number three team in the North Division of the American Conference. The Cyclones will travel to Toledo for a best-of-five series, with games one and two of the round at the Toledo Sports Arena. The first contest being played Friday (April 13) at 7:35pm. Saturday (April 14), game two is also a 7:35pm start. The third game shifts to U.S. Bank Arena on Thursday (April 19) in a 7:30pm start. The fourth game, if necessary, is also in Cincinnati on Friday, April 20 at 7:30pm. If the fifth game is needed, it will be in Toledo on Sunday (April 22) at 5pm.

OTHER PAIRINGS: The first round playoff series will feature the number four seed, Trenton, playing a best-of-three series with number five seed, Johnstown. The winner of that series will play North Division champion, Dayton, in a best-of-five series starting this weekend. Toledo and Cincinnati play in the other second round matchup. The winners of the second round will meet in a best-of-seven series starting the week of April 23.

THE CYCLONES AND TOLEDO: This series will mark the second time in club history that the Cyclones and Toledo have met in the postseason. During the 2002-03 Kelly Cup playoffs, the teams met in a best-of-five series--with the Cyclones claiming a triumph in four games. Cincinnati would be eliminated in the American Conference finals that year. During 2006-07, Cincinnati won six of the ten meetings between the teams to claim the season series.

HOME, SWEET HOME: The home team in the Cyclones-Storm series won nine of the ten meetings. Toledo won 27 games at Toledo Sports Arena, the most in the American Conference and second-most in the ECHL. The Cyclones claimed 19 triumphs at U.S. Bank Arena, second-most in the division and the most since the 2002-03 edition of the club also won 19 games at the facility. The team record for wins in a season is 21, set by the 1997-98 team when it was located in Louisville.

ROAD WARRIORS: The Cyclones won the only game a visiting team took in the series with Toledo, a 4-3 victory at TSA on Sunday, January 7. Cincinnati is unbeaten in its last three (2-0-1), has won seven of the last eleven (7-3-1--since March 1) and ten of the last seventeen (10-6-1--since February 1).

WEEK IN REVIEW: The Cyclones collected a natural hat trick from Mike Wirll on Tuesday night (April 3) in a 3-2 win at Columbia. Thursday night (April 5), a Dayton goal with 38 seconds remaining broke a 2-2 deadlock and all but assured the Bombers of the North Division title on the next to last day of the season. Friday night (April 6), Charlotte rallied from a third period deficit to pick up a 3-2 win in the regular season finale.

WIRLL LED THE LEAGUE: Cyclones right wing Mike Wirll led the ECHL in goal scoring with 47. Wirll becomes the first player in Cyclones history to lead the circuit in goal scoring. Mike had one three goal game (April 3 at Columbia) during his Cincinnati stint.

DESJARDINS NAMED ALL-ROOKIE: Cyclones goaltender Cedrick Desjardins was named to the ECHL's All-Rookie Team last week. Desjardins, 21, put together a 24-19-1 record with a 2.54 goals against average (fifth in the ECHL) and a .917 save percentage. Cedrick also collected five shutouts during the season.

WEBER TOP ROOKIE: Cyclones Head Coach Chuck Weber assembled the best winning percentage of any rookie coach in the ECHL. Weber directed Cincinnati to a 37-29-4-2 record (.556 winning percentage). That is .021 percent and one win more than Rick Kowalsky, the Trenton coach.

QUICK STRIKE CAPABILITY: The Cincinnati Cyclones have scored the opening goal of the game in ten of the 16 contests since returning from their California trip (March 5). In those ten games, an elapsed time of 56:05 has occurred on the scores. That means it has taken the Cyclones an average time of 5:37 to get the first goal of the game. This season, Cincinnati has scored in the first six minutes in 22 of the 72 games played.

CH-CH-CH-CHANGES...: The Cincinnati Cyclones have had nine players recalled to the American Hockey League (AHL) during the course of this season. Cincinnati has lost a total of 217 man-games due to recall, the equivalent of losing nearly three players for the entire season. At this moment, two players are in the AHL, Cory Urquhart is with Hamilton and Dov Grumet-Morris is with Manitoba.

MORE CH-CH-CH-CHANGES...: Due to the call-ups and injuries that have occurred this season, Cyclones Head Coach Chuck Weber used 45 different lineups over the 72 games. The most popular of these lineups only played together a total of six times.

SHORT-CIRCUITED: The Cyclones allowed power play goals in nine of the final ten games of the regular season. Opponents scored 13 times in 51 chances (25.5%) and dropped in penalty killing from first to third place in the league at 85.8 percent.

WE WERE THERE A WHILE...: The Cyclones were in first place in the North Division as late as April 4. Until March 23, the club had led the division every day since Dec. 23 (that's 90 days in a row, for those of you following along), a total of more than twelve weeks. It is the longest stretch a Cincinnati pro sports team has been in first place since the Cincinnati Reds (MLB) 1990 wire-to-wire run in winning the World Series. The Cyclones have been in first place 93 of the final 107 days.

DICKMANN'S MONDAY NIGHTS: Every Monday during the season, Cyclones Head Coach Chuck Weber and selected players will be at Dickmann's Sports Cafe (879 Orphanage Rd.--Ft. Wright, KY) from 7-8pm.

WWW.CYCLONESHOCKEY.COM: The most up-to-date information and broadcast of the games can be found on our website www.cycloneshockey.com.

Check out the Cincinnati Cyclones Statistics

• Discuss this story on the ECHL message board...

ECHL Stories from April 9, 2007


The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

Other Recent Cincinnati Cyclones Stories



Sports Statistics from the Stats Crew
OurSports Central