Release from the Cyclones: CYCLONES SEASON ENDS IN CONFERENCE FINAL Cincinnati Claims Second Straight Division Regular Season and Playoff Titles!COMING UP: The Cincinnati Cyclones, the 2008 Kelly Cup champions, had their season end on Friday night in a 3-2 loss to the South Carolina Stingrays. South Carolina used the win to capture the American Conference championship. The Stingrays will face the Alaska Aces, who won the National Conference championship, for the Kelly Cup.WHAT A SEASON IT WAS!: The Cyclones captured the North Division regular season championship in the final weekend of the season. Cincinnati posted a 41-26-5 record, winning the final four games of the season against Johnstown to eliminate the Chiefs and take the division crown.THE PLAYOFFS WERE PRETTY GOOD: The Cyclones claimed a dramatic seven game series win against Wheeling in the North Division semifinals. Cincinnati responded by crushing Elmira in a four game sweep to take the North Division Finals. South Carolina ended Cincinnati’s season in a four game sweep in the American Conference championship--one step away from a repeat trip to the Kelly Cup Finals.ROAD WARRIORS: The Cyclones enjoyed success on the road this season. The club led the ECHL with 22 road victories this season and went 5-2 away from the friendly confines of U.S. Bank Arena during the postseason. Cincinnati outscored the opposition, 24-19 on enemy ground and killed off 34 of 37 man disadvantage situations in those contests (91.9%).
The Cyclones had a seven game road winning streak from March 25 through May 9. Since the start of the 2007-08 regular season and including the Kelly Cup playoffs, the Cyclones are 61-25-3 (.702 winning percentage). The Cyclones are 17-6 (.739 winning percentage) under Head Coach Chuck Weber in the playoffs away from home.WEBER AMONG THE ECHL’S BEST EVER: Cyclones Head Coach Chuck Weber has quickly made a name for himself in the ECHL’s coaching record book. Weber has compiled a 30-17 record (.638 winning percentage)--which is the third-best winning percentage by any coach in the league’s history.
Mike Haviland (current Chicago Blackhawks assistant) is atop the list with a .659 winning percentage (36-19). Chris McSorley stis second at .644. Weber has also broken into the top ten all-time in Kelly Cup playoff wins. His 30 playoff triumphs puts him tenth all-time, one behind former Cincinnati bench boss Malcolm Cameron (31) for ninth place on the career wins list.THE NO GOAL PATROL: The Cyclones penalty killers were a stellar 92 percent effective against Elmira in the North Division Finals, surrendering two power play goals in 25 chances. The shorthanded crew chipped in with three tallies and stopped the last 21 chances the Jackals had in the series. BIG WINNERS: Since the start of the 2007-08 season and through the playoffs of last season--the Cyclones have compiled a record of 120-49-12 (.696 winning percentage). It is the best winning percentage of any team in the ECHL.CH-CH-CH-CHANGES...: The Cyclones welcomed Matt Dias to the lineup in the season finale making him the 58th 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 employed 44 different lineups this season. SPROAT’S SUDDEN DELIVERY: Cyclones rookie forward Dustin Sproat established a club record scoring goals ten seconds apart in the second period of the March 25 slaughter of Dayton (6-0). Sproat scored at 7:25 and 7:35 of the second period to blow the doors off of a 3-0 lead and chased Paul Drew from the game.
Sam Ftorek held the previous record of 27 seconds set during the 2006-07 campaign.COMEBACKS!: The Cyclones rally versus Johnstown on March 28 marked thirteen times this season that Cincinnati registered a comeback win. Last season, the squad recorded 25 comebacks and in the three seasons under Chuck Weber, the club has rallied 51 times to win. Three times the Cyclones have erased two goal deficits in 2008-09. Nine regular season comeback triumphs occurred after Christmas. During the playoffs, the Cyclones claimed four come from behind wins.MILLER LITE CYCLONES COACHES SHOW: The Miller Lite Cyclones Coaches Show is held Monday nights from 7-8pm at Jefferson Hall at Newport on the Levee.
Head Coach Chuck Weber attends the event each week and provides insight on the games and team. The final show of the season will be the Monday after the playoffs end. There will be no show this evening, as the club is in South Carolina playing game two of the American Conference Finals.CYCLONES IN THE COMMUNITY: The Cyclones were once again active in the Cincinnati community. During the 2008-09 season, the club donated $123,192 in goods, services and time. Included in this total is nearly 200 hours of time spent in the community by the players and coaching staff. In the three seasons under Chuck Weber, the team has returned $251,144 to the community.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 for 53 days in 2008-09. The 263 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 was only out of first for six days (February 18-19, March 14 and 27-29).THE AHL LIKES US: During the season, a total of 17 different Cyclones players received call ups to the American Hockey League. Those players saw action in more than 300 games. At one point in early March, 13 players were simultaneously in pro hockey’s AAA league. GOOD SEASON-PLUS: Cincinnati had a 21-11 record tafter the All-Star Game this season. In 2007-08, the Cyclones went 29-4-2 (.857 winning percentage) after the All-Star break. The club posted a 70-30-7 (.687) since the 2008 All-Star Game. In the three seasons under Chuck Weber, the club is 66-30-5 (.678) in games played after the All-Star Game.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.MORE QUICK ATTACK NEWS: The Cyclones established a club record with goals seven seconds apart in the win over Elmira on February 28. On a five-on-three power play, Dustin Sproat scored at 7:47 of the second period. While the crowd still celebrated the goal, Justin Johnson scored at 7:54 to give Cincinnati a 3-1 edge. The previous best was nine seconds apart set in an 8-6 triumph over Reading on January 5, 2008 as Jean-Michel Daoust and James Sixsmith scored their markers in the second period of that contest.CHUCK HAS BEATEN THEM ALL: With the win on March 19, Cyclones Head Coach Chuck Weber has defeated all 18 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, Idaho, Ontario, Utah and Victoria.EHGOETZ HAS A BIG NIGHT: While Barret Ehgoetz netted a career-high four goals in the 10-4 win over Wheeling on January 14--it was his assist in the game that was most noteworthy. It was the 94th of his career as a Cyclone, moving him into first place on the club’s career list. He now has 113 regular assists with the Cyclones.JANUARY 14 WAS A GOOD NIGHT...: Beside the six second period goals on January 14, the club also tied a record with T.J. McElroy’s three second period assists. Barret Ehgoetz had three goals in the second period to tie a club record. Fourteen different players had points in the game that night--again, tying a club record.ATTENDANCE IMPROVES AGAIN: The Cyclones drew 111,750 fans through the turnstiles, an average of 3104, which ranked 17th in the ECHL. Attendance shot up 23.1 percent over a year ago (2524 per game in 2007-08). That improvement was second-largest in minor pro hockey in 2008-09. Last season, Cincinnati’s 28 percent growth led all of pro hockey.CYCLONES ARE ‘BEST IN CITY’: The Cyclones learned in mid-November that they were named by Cincinnati Magazine in its annual ‘Best of’ issue, as the ‘Best Pro Sports Team’. The Cyclones won the award on the heels of their first Kelly Cup championship, ECHL record 71 wins between the regular season and playoffs and 28 percent increase in attendance--best in professional hockey in North America. 200!: The win on November 8 was the 200th regular season triumph by a team called the Cincinnati Cyclones at U.S. Bank Arena. The club played its first game in the facility, then known as The Crown on October 4, 1997--a 1-0 shootout loss to Kansas City in front of 13,253 fans. It was the second event (behind a Fleetwood Mac concert) in the newly renovated facility. The first win by a Cyclones team was when the IHL squad took down Cleveland, 3-2, in a shootout behind 25 saves from Geoff Sarjeant on October 15, 1997.LONG NIGHT...: The goal scored by Matt Syroczynski on April 20, ended the second-longest game in club history at 83:48. Back on April 6, 2003 Nick Bootland netted the game ender--ironically in the second overtime--in a 4-3 win over Peoria. That ended the best of five series in four games and came at 91:02. The OT game on Monday was the fifth-longest played by a professional team called the Cincinnati Cyclones, as twice those IHL teams played in triple OT. The longest game was on May 1, 1998 when Scott Morrow’s goal ended a 3-2 verdict at Detroit in the opening game of the Turner Cup Eastern Conference semifinals. That goal hit the back of the net at 110:05 of overtime and at 12:18am, nearly five hours after the game began.
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