ECHL Cincinnati Cyclones

Cyclones Tied For Division Lead

March 23, 2009 - ECHL (ECHL)
Cincinnati Cyclones News Release


COMING UP: The Cincinnati Cyclones, the 2008 Kelly Cup champions, play three important divisional games this week as the regular season is down to its final six games. Wednesday night (March 25), Cincinnati travels to the Nutter Center for another contest against Dayton. Thursday night (March 26), the Cyclones welcome Trenton for its final regular season trip to the Queen City. Saturday (March 28), Cincinnati heads to Johnstown for the final road game of the regular season.

NORTH STANDINGS: The Cyclones are tied for the North Division lead with Elmira. Cincinnati currently is the top seed in the North Division on tiebreakers. Both teams have 77 points. Johnstown, Trenton and Wheeling are all tied for second with 76 points. On tiebreakers, Johnstown is the third seed, Trenton is the fourth seed and Wheeling is the fifth seed. The top four teams in the North Division will advance to the Kelly Cup playoffs. All five teams have six games remaining. Dayton is still mathematically alive for postseason play, but would need to win out and have Trenton lose every possible point the rest of the way to get in.

ABOUT SUNDAY AFTERNOON...: The Cyclones battled back from a 2-0 deficit in the first four minutes of the game but could not overtake Trenton in a 4-3 loss. T.J. McElroy had a pair of assists and Barret Ehgoetz' goal with 1:43 to play put Cincinnati in position to tie the game up late--but the equalizing goal could not be scored.

ABOUT SATURDAY NIGHT...: The Cyclones claimed a 2-1 win against Trenton with Dustin Sproat's re-direction of a Chris D'Alvise shot from the right wing side with 4:03 to play to break a 1-1 deadlock. Loic Lacasse stopped 21 shots in the win.

ABOUT THURSDAY NIGHT...: Mark Van Guilder's 21st goal of the season early in the third period proved to be the difference in a 3-1 win over Gwinnett. Chris D'Alvise had a pair of assists for his first pro points and Loic Lacasse stopped 21 shots in picking up the win.

ABOUT WEDNESDAY NIGHT...: The Cyclones dropped a 4-1 decision to Gwinnett Wednesday night. Gerard Miller opened the scoring on the power play early in the second period, but four unanswered scores by the Gladiators put the game out of reach. Ryan Nie stopped 17 shots in the loss.

FIRST PLACE CYCLONES!: The win on February 3 vaulted the third place Cyclones into first place in the North Division for the first time since the end of the 2007-08 regular season. Cincinnati sat in the division lead for 90 days in 2006-07, for 120 days in 2007-08 and now 46 days in 2008-09. The 256 days are the most by any team in the North Division over the past three years. Since grabbing the top spot on February 3, the club has only been out of first for three days (February 18-19 and March 14).

COMEBACK!: The Cyclone rally versus Trenton Saturday night marked twelve times this season that Cincinnati has registered a comeback win. Last season, the squad recorded 25 comebacks and in the three seasons under Chuck Weber, the club has rallied 50 times to win. Three times the Cyclones have erased two goal deficits in 2008-09. Eight comeback triumphs have occurred since Christmas.

NINE UP!: There are currently nine players who have appeared in games for Cincinnati this season that are currently in the American Hockey League. Besides Thomas Beauregard, Jimmy Kilpatrick, Olivier Latendresse, Matt Macdonald, Kyle Rank, Joe Ryan, Mark Santorelli, Stephen Werner and J.T. Wyman are all playing at hockey's 'AAA' level. This season, a total of 17 players have earned callups and played more than 280 games, scored 20 goals, assembled more than 60 points and collected six wins. At one point three weeks ago, the Cyclones had a season-high 13 players simultaneously on AHL rosters.

ROAD WARRIORS: The Cyclones are 20-13-1 (.614 winning percentage) on the road. The 20 wins are tied with Florida for most in the ECHL. Cincinnati was a perfect 7-0 away from U.S. Bank Arena during January. Cincinnati has won 14 of its last 21 road games. The Cyclones are 18-8 in away games since Thanksgiving.

MILLER LITE CYCLONES COACHES SHOW: The Miller Lite Cyclones Coaches Show will be held Mondays from 7-8pm at Jefferson Hall at Newport on the Levee. Head Coach Chuck Weber and a pair of players are present at the show each week. Tonight, goaltender Loic Lacasse and forward Ryan Krug are the guests.

NEXT MAX FM GAME: The next broadcast of Cyclones hockey on MAX-FM (97.7 and 99.5) will occur Wednesday night, March 25 from Dayton. The pregame show will start at 7:15pm and the faceoff comes at 7:30pm.

TICKETS! GET YOUR TICKETS!: Tickets for all Cincinnati Cyclones games can be purchased through Ticketmaster by using their website at: www.ticketmaster.com. Tickets can also be purchased at the window day of the game. Season ticket packages can also be obtained by contacting the Cyclones offices at 513-421-PUCK (7825) x. 3.

CH-CH-CH-CHANGES...: The Cyclones welcomed Chris D'Alvise to the lineup Wednesday night making him the 53rd player to dress for the club this season. Last year, a total of 46 different players appeared in games for Cincinnati en route to the Kelly Cup championship. The Cyclones have now employed 39 different lineups this season.

FAMILY FOUR PACK ON SALE!: The Cyclones Family Four Pack is now on sale. For $69 (including all handling fees), you get four tickets to any Cyclones regular season game, four hot dogs, four Pepsis, four Cyclones winter caps, four ice skating passes to SportsPlus and a SportsPlus game card. Valued at more than $150--this is a package that has something for everyone! Call the Cyclones Sales Department at 513-421-7825, x. 3 to order yours.

CHUCK HAS BEATEN THEM ALL: With the win on February 13, Cyclones Head Coach Chuck Weber has now defeated all 16 teams Cincinnati has been scheduled to play in regular season play in the three years that he has been in charge. With South Carolina and Las Vegas added to the totals in the postseason, Weber has victories over 18 all ECHL teams his clubs have been scheduled to play. The only teams he has not defeated are the only squads he has not faced--Alaska, Gwinnett, Idaho, Ontario, Phoenix, Utah and Victoria.

WEBER REACHES CENTURY MARK: Head Coach Chuck Weber picked up his 100th regular season victory on November 29. Now in his third season directing the Cyclones, Weber has a 128-66-16 mark (.643 winning percentage). The win on November 30 allowed Chuck to pass Warren Young for the club lead in regular season wins. Young needed three full seasons to post his 100-86-24 (.533) record. Weber has 108 of those wins against North Division competition.

DON'T BLINK...: The Cyclones collected three goals in a 1:43 span of the third period in the 5-0 win at Reading on March 7. At 1:41 of the final frame, Ian McKenzie lit the lamp. Just 49 seconds later (at 2:30), Barret Ehgoetz netted his goal. Another 54 seconds later (at 3:24), Ben Gordon scored his second goal of the night. The 103 seconds is the second-shortest period of time for three goals by Cincinnati players under Head Coach Chuck Weber. The squad netted three goals in a 1:07 stretch back on December 16, 2007 against Johnstown.

BLANKED!: The shutout by Loic Lacasse on February 25 was his first as a Cyclone and his third of the season (the other two were with Hamilton-AHL). It was the first time a Cincinnati netminder had posted a shutout since Cody Rudkowsky stopped 22 shots in a 6-0 win over Wheeling on March 12 of last season. Ryan Nie's shutout last Saturday night is the second whitewashing in five games.

SECOND HALF UPDATE: Cincinnati has a 14-9 record to start the post-All-Star Game portion of the year. In 2007-08, the Cyclones went 29-4-2 (.857 winning percentage) after the All-Star break. The club is 63-28-7 (.669) since the 2008 All-Star Game.

MAGIC NUMBERS: The Cyclones and Elmira each have 'magic' numbers of twelve. Johnstown and Trenton have 'magic' numbers of 13. Any combination of standings points gained by these teams or standings points lost by Wheeling reduces these numbers. When a team reaches zero, it clinches a Kelly Cup playoffs berth.

ATTENDANCE NUMBERS UP: The Cyclones have drawn 88,213 to the first 30 games at U.S. Bank Arena this season, an average of 2941--which is 19th in the ECHL. Through the first 30 games of last season, the club drew 69,883--an average of 2329. Cincinnati did not reach 88,213 until the 36th (and final) home game of 2007-08--reaching 90,778 through those 36 dates, an average of 2522 as of March 28, 2008. Attendance this season is up 26.2 percent over the first 30 dates of a year ago--when the Cyclones had the highest percentage increase in attendance (36.8 percent) of any pro hockey team in North America. That percentage increase is the second-highest among minor league teams (Tulsa-CHL 28.3%).

MORE ATTENDANCE: While the top four teams in minor hockey attendance improvement are more than 20 percent better, attendance in minor league hockey has fallen three percent over 2007-08. Despite this trend, the Cyclones have increased attendance by 612 fans per home game, second-best in minor league hockey. Cincinnati's 612 fans per game is the biggest improvement in the ECHL (Victoria is up 91 per game to rank second). The top per game average increases in minor league hockey are: Tulsa-CHL 1097, Cincinnati-ECHL 612, Springfield-AHL and Bridgeport-AHL, 569

ATTENDANCE CLOSER TO HOME: The Cyclones are one of three ECHL teams this season with an increase in attendance. Cincinnati is averaging 612 fans more per game this season, while Victoria (91) and Wheeling (89) are the other teams with increases in 2008-09.

Check out the Cincinnati Cyclones Statistics



ECHL Stories from March 23, 2009


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