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jevers
Administrator
USA
1367 Posts |
 Posted - 04/24/2010 : 11:18:46 PM
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CINCINNATI, Ohio - Dustin Sproat's third goal of the playoffs with 2:52 to go in the second period gave the Cincinnati Cyclones a 2-1 lead that would hold up the rest of the way in a victory over the Charlotte Checkers. Hans Benson netted Cincinnati's other score and Jeremy Smith turned aside 32 shots in the victory.
With the win, the Cyclones grab a three games to two lead in the American Conference Semifinals series. The sixth game of the series will be played in Charlotte on Tuesday night at 7pm. ESPN 1530 will carry the game live. If a seventh game is needed, it would be played on Wednesday nightalso at Charlotte at 7pm and again, ESPN 1530 would have the broadcast of the contest.
The win also was the 36th in the postseason in four years for Cyclones Head Coach Chuck Weber. The triumph ties him for sixth place on the ECHL's career playoff wins list. Weber and Gwinnett Head Coach Jeff Pyle are tied for most wins by an active coach and the 36 victories are as many as Mike Haviland had in his four campaigns in the league. No mentor in the 22 year history of the ECHL has won 37 games in his first four seasons as a coach.
The victory also continued the trend of alternating wins and losses between the odd and evened numbered games of the playoff series. The Cyclones are 6-0 in the first, third, fifth and seventh games. Cincinnati is 0-3-1 in the second, fourth and sixth games.
Charlotte notched the first goal 15:46 into the first frame when Aaron Slattengren got in behind the defense and took a feed from Matt Schepke. Slattengren grabbed the feed at the top of the goal crease from the right wing side and slipped it past goaltender Jeremy Smith. Hans Benson leveled the scores at one each at 19:04. Benson worked with Ryan Del Monte to get in front of the Charlotte net and took a feed from Del Monte from the left corner to push his first lamplighter of the postseason past Checkers netminder Ryan Munce. Maxime Lacroix had the other assist on the score. Cincinnati made a dramatic stand in the game's seventh minutekilling off a five-on-three power play for 51 seconds to keep the game even. The shots favored the Cyclones, 12-7, in the opening term.
In the second period, Cincinnati was outshot 11-3, but netted the only marker of the frame. With a delayed penalty coming to the CheckersBarret Ehgoetz fed a pass up the right wing side to Dustin Sproat, who sidestepped a defender in the Charlotte end and flipped the puck past Munce for his third goal of the playoffs at 17:08. Jason Jozsa had the second assist on the score.
In the third period there was no scoring, but Charlotte applied the pressureoutshooting the Cyclones, 15-7, in the period.
Charlotte won the South Division title and American Conference regular season championship by posting a 43-21-8 record. The Checkers were a conference-best 25-8-3 in games at the Time Warner Cable Arena. Charlotte is the number one seed in the conference playoffs and knocked out Toledo in the opening round of the postseason in four games. Cincinnati finished as runner-up in the North Division with a 44-25-3 record and upended the fourth-seeded and defending Kelly Cup champion South Carolina Stingrays in five games. The Cyclones are the fifth-seeded team in these American Conference playoffs. Cincinnati is the only team in the ECHL to have advanced to the second round of the Kelly Cup playoffs in each of the past four seasons. The Cyclones are now a win away from becoming the third team in ECHL history to advance to the league semifinals (last four teams in the postseason) three straight years.
Tickets for the 2010-11 Cincinnati Cyclones season are now on sale, as will as games in the American Conference Finals round once the team advances. The Cyclones Sales Department can be reached at 513-421-PUCK, extension 3. All road Kelly Cup playoff games will be carried on ESPN 1530 and on the club's website at: www.cycloneshockey.com.
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