Bobcat’s Post Game Notes, Cyclones vs. Heartlanders
Cyclones win, 4-2 over the Iowa Heartlanders.
-Been a while since i did one of these, huh? I got really burned out halfway through the Blue Jackets season this year, so I decided to do away with the “every game” setup and do what NoVa does, which is only write notes for the games that I go to, which are usually minor league games. I hope you’re ready for more names you’ve never heard before.
-It is ungodly freezing in Cincinnati today, so much so that it feels like the heater is on in Heritage Bank Center. I’m used to it being cooler in the rink.
-The Cincinnati Cyclones have clinched a playoff spot by this point, so I would expect a more laid-back game from Vaiver and the boys. Let’s hope we at least win, though.
-Minnesota Wild 2nd round draft pick Hunter Jones is stuck on the Heartlanders roster right now (not starting for tonight). He’s done a pretty okay job in net this year, with a .900 SV% in 32 games played. The guy starting for today (Darion Hanson) has looked exponentially worse in the last few games. This might be a good game.
-It wasn’t until now that I realized that Jalen Smereck (the player that was taunted with a banana gesture in Ukraine) is on the Cyclones roster. And he hasn’t been bad. He’s played a lot of minutes, and has 40+ points. Good offensive defenseman stuff.
-Not even thirty seconds in, something odd happens: Cyclones Defenseman Zach Berzolla loses an edge and runs into his own goalie, Mark Sinclair. They’re both fine, but it was scary looking.
-First power play of the night: Bo Hanson gets sent off for slashing. Let’s see if we can do any better than the Jackets (proportional to league strength)…
-…meh. The Heartlanders got their chances to score a shorty, but they both got shut down by Sinclair.
-Not long after that, Cyclones go on the PK: Sean Allen goes off for… tripping? From my vantage point (which to be fair is all the way across the arena) that looked more like a cross-check.
-One second before the Allen penalty ended, the Cyclones got a PP: too many men on the ice.
-A POWER PLAY GOAL! Zack Andrusiak scores on a sharp angle, and I completely missed it because some inconsiderate d*uchebags walked down the stairs during a goal-mouth scramble. Some people, man…
-Louie Caporusso almost made it 2-0 Cyclones, but lost his balance and flew forward like Bobby Orr did (except like a thousand times less cool).
-Matt Berry got a breakaway for Cincy, but in the most pee-wee move I’ve seen in a long time, he trips over his own feet at the blue line. Lmao.
-The first period ends 1-0 Cyclones. All in all, a good period. Let’s keep this going.
-Not a good start to the period: Berzolla goes to the box for holding. Let’s kill this off.
-Man, our PK is great! If you just looked at the play-by-play data, you wouldn’t have thought we were on the penalty kill. We were up in their faces the whole time.
-This Mark Sinclair kid we have in goal is pretty good. I’m gonna try to manifest this into existence again and say you should remember his name for the future. Who knows, an NHL squad may pick him up.
-Cyclones get a 4-on-2, but Hanson shuts it down with ease. That was nice to the eyes.
-Heartlanders forward Steven Leonard must be in a terrible mood. A blatant slash paired with the second too many men call gives the Cyclones a 5-on-3! Let’s go…
-Jalen Smereck scores to make it 2-0! That’s his 7th goal on the season! This team is rockin’!
-There’s a slashing call for the Cyclones, but before that gets killed off, we have a THIRD (count it, THIRD) too many players on the ice penalty. At what point does it stop getting funny and start getting irritating?
-Jake Derflinger gives the Heartlanders a break, goes forehand-backhand and Sinclair stuffs him. That was sexy.
-The second ends with a lot of chirping back and forth, and a Mexican wave in the crowd.
-I’m noticing the shot totals are unusually low, even for an ECHL game. 20 shots for Cincy, 15 for Iowa. This has been far from a defensive showcase, or goalie battle, so this is odd.
-Matt Berry does the first thing of note in the third period and trips someone up. It’s been 6 minutes.
-Big scrum after a goal-mouth scramble. A couple players got taken down, but no penalties were assessed.
-The following is an actual interaction that was had after a penalty.
PA guy: “Cincinnati penalty, #17 Matt Cairns, two minutes for cross-checking.”
Some random fan: “HOW ABOUT TWO MINUTES FOR ‘SHUT THE HELL UP’?”
The point is, we’re on the PK again.
-Cairns comes out of the box, and then immediately goes back in for interference. There was literally like 3 seconds between Cairns penalties. Lol.
-Now we’re stuck in a 5-on-3 for a minute and 56 seconds. Josh Passolt gets sent to Hockey jail for delay of game.
-BY SOME MIRACLE, WE KILL IT OFF. I was convinced that this was how the shutout died, but we held firm and it stays 2-0.
-…I should have kept my mouth shut. Although it’s not a shutout, I admire this guy’s effort. It took him this long to give one up. Go to the league, Mark. Stunt on these hoes.
-I’m in the middle of writing the above note, I look up to see the puck in go flying, fall and hit Hanson in the back of the head and drop in the net. I think i saw something like that in an episode of Weird NHL. You know what they say: We f*cking take those.
-As the PA guy is announcing that goal, the Heartlanders get a rush, and score. This game has picked up a f*ckton.
-The Cyclones hold firm, and even put an EN in to win! I had a blast at this game.
-I said it last time, I’ll say it again: If you ever get the chance, go to one of these ECHL games. You won’t regret it.
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