ECHL Cincinnati Cyclones

Cyclones Continue To Lead North

Published on February 1, 2010 under ECHL (ECHL)
Cincinnati Cyclones News Release


COMING UP: The Cincinnati Cyclones, the ECHL affiliate of the Montreal Canadiens and Nashville Predators, host Wheeling on Wednesday (Feb. 3) and defending Kelly Cup champion South Carolina on Thursday (Feb. 4) before heading to Kalamazoo for a Friday night tilt (Feb. 5).

BY NOW, YOU CAN FORGET THE GARMIN...: The Cyclones play a season-high eight games at Wings Stadium this year. The club plays games between January 16 and February 11 (27 days) either at U.S. Bank Arena or Wings Stadium. The eleven total games feature eight at home and the other three at their new home-away-from-home, Kalamazoo. After Friday's gathering in Michigan, the clubs will not meet again at Wings Stadium until Wednesday, March 31.

CHUCK MOVES UP: Cyclones Head Coach Chuck Weber reached another milestone with Friday night's win over South Carolina. The triumph was his 160th regular season win, which ties him with Doug Sauter and Rick Vaive for eleventh most through the first four full seasons of coaching. His next win will tie him with Matt Thomas (161) for tenth-most. Weber's 133 triumphs through his first three campaigns was fourth-most in league history.

EHGOETZ NEARS TOP SPOT: The Cincinnati Cyclones all-time point lead has been held for more than a decade now by Sheldon Gorski. While Gorski never played a game in the Queen City (his career was spent when the team was in Louisville), he amassed 213 points for the club. Barret Ehgoetz is now one point away from tying Gorski for the record. The fifth year forward picked up an assist Friday night for 75 goals and 137 assists in his career with the Cyclones.

REYNOLDS MOVES UP, NEARS MARK: Cyclones forward Scott Reynolds has moved past former Cincinnati forward Nick Bootland for eleventh place on the club's career scoring list. The fourth year player from Kerrobert, SK has 102 career points with Cincinnati after his goal against Bootland's Kalamazoo Wings club on Saturday.

THE VIEW IS BETTER FROM THE TOP: The Cyclones begin the week as the leaders of the North Division of the American Conference. Cincinnati has held the top spot in the division for 26 days. The club led the North Division for 51 days a year ago in claiming its second consecutive regular season crown and led 120 days during the Kelly Cup run of 2008. In 2006-07, the Cyclones were on top for 90 days. The 287 days at the top are the most by any North Division team over the past four seasons.

LOG JAM!: First through fourth place in the North Division are separated by just two points, making it the closest divisional race in the ECHL. If the Kelly Cup playoffs began today--all four teams in the North would qualify for the postseason. Last year, the closest divisional race was in the Pacific Division, where first and fourth place were decided by eleven points. The top four teams in the North (of seven teams) were seven points apart a year ago. Tight races in the North Division are not anything new. The top four have been within seven points of one another in three of the past six years.

O'HANLEY HEATS UP: Cyclones defenseman Brian O'Hanley did not score a goal in his first 111 professional games. In his first game of 2010, he netted a score in the win at Johnstown. In the five games after that, Brian did not have a point--but has rebounded with goals in four of the last eight games--including his first-ever overtime goal at 1:42 of bonus time Friday night. The second year defenseman from Quincy, MA registered one multiple point game in his career prior to the start of the new year--and has three of them since January 1 in 14 games.

MORE O'HANLEY: Cyclones defenseman Brian O'Hanley has also moved into second place in the ECHL with a +18 plus/minus rating. O'Hanley trails only Brennan Turner (Elmira) at +32. O'Hanley has been even or better in 33 of his 43 games this season and is +13 in the 15 games since New Year's Eve. Matt Pierce and Scott Reynolds (each at +12) are the other Cincinnati players in double digits on the chart.

ABOUT SATURDAY NIGHT...: The Cyclones dropped a 6-3 decision at Kalamazoo, as the Wings scored on three of their first four shots of the contest. Maxime Lacroix, Matt Pierce and Scott Reynolds each lit the lamp in the defeat. Cincinnati outshot Kalamazoo, 36-24, in the contest--including a 31-8 edge through two periods.

ABOUT FRIDAY NIGHT...: The Cyclones got a 3-2 overtime win over South Carolina to open up a four point lead in the North Division standings over Kalamazoo. Brian O'Hanley's shot from the slot at 1:42 of extra time broke the deadlock. Jimmy Kilpatrick had a goal and an assist and Dustin Sproat chipped in with a pair of assists. Robert Mayer stopped a career-high 35 saves in taking his twelfth victory of the campaign.

ABOUT WEDNESDAY NIGHT...: The Cyclones scored three times in the opening ten minutes and cruised to a 4-1 win over Charlotte. Barret Ehgoetz and Scott Reynolds each had a goal and an assist to pace the offense. Robert Mayer turned aside 24 shots to collect his eleventh victory of the season.

ABOUT MONDAY NIGHT...: Johnstown took a 5-1 win from the Cyclones, despite being outshot, 47-24. Matt Pierce had the lone goal for Cincinnati, his 22nd of the season. Jeremy Smith stopped 19 shots in taking the loss in goal.

DEFENSE SOLID: The Cyclones have a 2.84 goals against average, second-best in the ECHL. Cincinnati is allowing just 26.5 shots per game--again, second-best in the ECHL. The penalty kill ranks tenth in the league at 82.3 percent, while the club leads the league with twelve shorthanded goals.

POWER SURGE: The Cyclones enjoyed an improvement on the power play during the month of January, having scored man-advantage goals in eleven of the 14 games. Cincinnati punched its ticket on 16 of 88 power play chances (18.2 percent), moving from 18th in the standings in the statistic--up three spots to 15th.

PRETTY GOOD: The Cyclones have the second-most standings points (55) that they have had through 45 games in team history. Through 45 games of 2007-08, the club posted a 34-8-3 record (71 points). The 1995-96 club from Louisville and last year's 24-16-5 clubs both had 53 points through 45 games. It is also the second-fastest period of time in team history to 27 wins. In 2007-08, the squad hit the 27 win mark on January 25. Previously, the second-fastest mark was February 2, set by that 1995-96 club at Louisville.

NOT AFRAID OF A LITTLE OVERTIME: The Cyclones lead the ECHL in winning percentage in overtime. Cincinnati has won five of the six contests that have extended past regulation time in 2009-10. The club is 2-0 in overtime games, including Friday's 3-2 triumph over South Carolina. The squad is 3-1 in shootouts. Of teams at the 'AA' level or higher, the Cyclones and Grand Rapids Griffins (AHL) each have a.833 winning percentage (5-1 for both). Fort Wayne (IHL) is third at.778 (7-2 record).

ATTENDANCE NUMBERS STRONG: The Cyclones are averaging 3638 per game through the first 22 contests at U.S. Bank Arena, which ranks 16th in the ECHL. The club has already drawn the second-largest (10,920 for Throwback Night on November 6) and fourth-largest (8944 for Education In Hockey Day on November 17) regular season crowds in team history. The January 23rd crowd of 6485 was the third-largest of the season and 15th biggest in team history. Friday night's gate of 5857 was the 19th biggest in the record book. Attendance at Cyclones games is up 11.9 percent over last year's season average and is up 25.6 percent over the first 22 home games of a year ago--which is the second-biggest increase of any minor pro team in North America, Quad City is tops at an increase of 41.4 percent. The club has drawn 80,034 through the turnstiles halfway through the home schedule. Last season, the club did not draw that many people through the first 28 games (February 25, 2009).

CLIMBING HIGH...: When the Cyclones returned to hockey in 2006-07, they finished 25th of 25 teams in attendance at 1844 per game. During the 2007-08 Kelly Cup march, the squad attracted 2523 per game--an increase of 36.8 percent. That percentage was the greatest of any team playing minor pro hockey. Last year, the team attracted 3104 per game--an increase of 23 percent, second-best in all of minor pro hockey. There are 78 North American minor pro hockey teams playing in 2009-10 and the Cyclones rank 49th on that list. It is the highest ranking that the Cyclones have had on this chart after January 1 of a season since returning to action in 2006.

IT'S MAGIC...: While it is a bit early to be looking at playoff matchups and possible scenarios--the Cyclones do have a 'magic number' of 50 to qualifying for an American Conference Kelly Cup berth. Cincinnati would need to finish with more points than any four of the following to make the field (possible points in brackets): Johnstown (88), Trenton (95), Gwinnett (101), Florida (104), Reading (104), Elmira (105) and Wheeling (105).

COACHES SHOW: The Coors Light Cyclones Coaches Show originates each Monday night from Jefferson Hall at Newport on the Levee. Head Coach Chuck Weber joins Nick Brunker each week from 7-8pm. This week, forward Hans Benson and defenseman Brian O'Hanley will be the special guests.

Check out the Cincinnati Cyclones Statistics

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ECHL Stories from February 1, 2010


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