‘Clones drop a home game
Posted by UFreak in 
CINCINNATI, Ohio – A three goal explosion in the third period by the Elmira Jackals was enough to give the club a 4-1 win over the Cincinnati Cyclones on Friday night. Defensemen Brandon Roach and Nathan Lutz each had a goal and an assist to pace the victory. Michael Teslak stopped 20 shots to take the victory.
Elmira scored the only goal of the first period when defenseman Nathan Lutz fired a shot from just inside the blueline for his sixth goal of the year. Brandon Roach and Pierre-Luc Faubert had the assists. The shots on goal also favored the Jackals, 11-4.
The second period did not have any scoring, but Elmira had three power play chances to Cincinnati’s one. The shots on goal again went the way of the Jackals, 11-5.
The Cyclones tied the game at 1-1 at the 2:33 mark of the third period, as Justin Johnson netted his eleventh of the campaign. Johnson scored in a goal mouth scramble to level the scores as Ben McLeod and Breet Beauchamp handed out the assists. The Jackals scored the final three goals of the game to pull away with the decision. Roach (his ninth at 6:06), Chris Korchinski (his 19th at 8:27) and Mike Sgroi (his ninth at 13:58 on the power play) rounded out the scoring. Cincinnati won the shots battle in the third period, 12-11. For the game, Elmira outshot Cincinnati, 33-21. The Jackals were two-for-five on the power play while the Cyclones were one-for-four with the extra attacker.
The Cyclones are now 31-21-5 on the season, while Elmira is 30-21-5. The Cyclones play host to Elmira Saturday night in the final regular season meeting between the teams. These are also the final weekend games for the Cyclones until Fan Appreciation Weekend (April 3-4). Tickets are just ten dollars each. Saturday’s game features one dollar pulled pork sandwiches and is Go Green Night.
With the crowd of 4078, the Cyclones are averaging 21.9 percent more fans than 2007-08 through 29 home games. That is the second-largest improvement from last year through 29 games of any professional hockey team in North America (Tulsa-CHL is up 27.0%). Last year, Cincinnati’s season attendance improved 36.8 percent over 2006-07—the biggest increase in all of professional hockey. The Cyclones are averaging 2866 per game, having welcomed 83,111 fans this season.