ECHL Cincinnati Cyclones

Cincinnati Cyclones Weekly

April 23, 2007 - ECHL (ECHL)
Cincinnati Cyclones News Release


COMING UP: The Cincinnati Cyclones (37-29-4-2) play three games this week against the North Division regular season champions, the Dayton Bombers (37-26-2-7). The Cyclones and Bombers are meeting to determine the North Division playoff champion and to represent the division in the American Conference finals, which will begin the week of May 7. The Cyclones lead the best-of-seven series, one game to none.

OTHER PAIRINGS: The North Division finals feature the Cyclones and Bombers, while the other half of the American Conference--the South Division--has Florida and Texas beginning their best-of-seven series on Tuesday night. The winner of the American Conference will play the survivor of the National Conference playoffs for the Kelly Cup, with the first game to be played during the week of May 21.

ABOUT GAME ONE...: The Cyclones claimed game one of the North Division finals, 5-4, Sunday afternoon (April 22). Jason Deitsch netted a pair of goals and added an assist to pace the offense. Mathieu Aubin and Sam Ftorek each added a goal and an assist, while Rory Rawlyk chipped in with three assists. Ftorek's power play slapshot goal from the blueline 10:13 into the third period opened a 5-3 lead for Cincinnati. Dayton rounded out the scoring with a power play goal of its own, with the goaltender pulled, for a six-on-three goal at 17:41--as Joe Cullen netted the score for the Bombers. Rookie goaltender Cedrick Desjardins stopped 21 shots in taking the victory, his fourth of the playoffs.

A NIGHT OF FIRSTS...: The triumph at the Nutter Center was the first postseason win in the facility ever by this franchise. The original Cincinnati Cyclones (now the Stockton Thunder) won a contest at the facility in a three game sweep during the 1991 season.

DEITSCH KNOWS PLAYOFFS: Cyclones center Jason Deitsch ranks fourth in the ECHL in playoff scoring with nine points (3-6---9). Deitsch, the first Cincinnati native to play for the club, has had multiple point games in each of the first four postseason games. Last season, Jason had four goals and ten assists in 16 games with Kalamazoo (UHL)--as the K-Wings won the Colonial Cup. The two goal, one assist game on Sunday came one day after his 27th birthday.

STEWART STEPS UP: Cyclones rookie left wing Greg Stewart has elevated his game during the postseason, by scoring a goal in each of the first four games. The Waterloo, Ontario scored eight goals in 61 games during the regular season with Cincinnati. Stewart is tied for the lead among ECHL rookie goal scorers in the playoffs with four (Julian Talbot-Alaska). Greg's four-game goal scoring streak is the longest of the Kelly Cup playoffs.

CEDRICK THE SUPERB: Cyclones rookie goaltender Cedrick Desjardins is tied for the ECHL postseason lead in wins with four. His .942 save percentage ranks fourth among netminders in the league during the playoffs. Desjardins has a 2.00 goals against average since the Kelly Cup playoffs started, placing him sixth on the circuit in that category. Cedrick also has one shutout during the playoffs.

ABOUT LAST WEEK...: The Cyclones advanced to the North Division finals by completing a three game sweep of the Toledo Storm on Thursday (April 19). The 4-0 victory closed out the Storm, who announced earlier in the week that they had been sold and would have building renovations that would cause the team to shut its doors for at least the next two seasons (until 2009). Cedrick Desjardins stopped 36 shots in collecting the shutout. Mike Wirll's first period goal would prove to be the series winner, as Jean-Michel Daoust, Greg Stewart and Mathieu Aubin all chipped in with goals as well. The power play until tallied two goals in seven chances and the penalty killers eliminated all six Toledo opportunities.

ROAD WARRIORS: The Cyclones have enjoyed playing away from U.S. Bank Arena in recent times, unbeaten in its last six (5-0-1, since March 30), has won ten of the last 14 (10-3-1--since March 1) and 13 of the last 20 (13-6-1--since February 1). Cincinnati is the only team in the American Conference with three road wins in the playoffs, only Las Vegas (the team with the ECHL's best regular season record and a 17-game winning streak) has matched that feat in the National Conference.

HOORAY FOR THE ROOKIES: The Cyclones have received nearly half of their goals in the postseason via their rookies. Cincinnati is averaging a playoff-best 4.75 goals per game. The Cyclones have scored 19 times in four games, with the first-year players netting nine of those scores (47.3%). The nine goals by rookies are the most of any ECHL team.

EXTRA SPECIAL TEAMS: The Cyclones rank second in the ECHL playoffs in power play percentage at 29.2 percent (seven of 24). The 1.75 man-advantage goals per game is the third-best in the league. The Cincinnati penalty killing unit is killing off 86.7 percent of the man-disadvantage situations it is facing, sixth-best in the league (20 of 24 eliminated).

COMEBACKS: The Cyclones rallied from a 1-0 deficit in the second period on Sunday, to defeat Dayton, 5-4. It was the second time in four playoff games that Cincinnati had rallied to win a game. During the regular season, the Cyclones registered 13 come-from-behind wins. Two of those comeback wins were against the Dayton Bombers--Cincinnati's opponent in the North Division finals.

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 was .021 percent and one win more than Rick Kowalsky, the Trenton coach. Weber was the runner-up for the ECHL's Coach of the Year award that was won by Davis Payne of Alaska.

CH-CH-CH-CHANGES...: The Cincinnati Cyclones have had ten players recalled to the American Hockey League (AHL) during the course of this season. Cincinnati has lost a total of 221 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 46 different lineups over the 76 regular season and playoff games. The most popular of these lineups only played together a total of six times.

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



ECHL Stories from April 23, 2007


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