It was the first-ever meeting between the Bloomington Bison and the Cincinnati Cyclones on Friday night at Heritage Bank Center, where “Shutout the Hate” night was celebrated. It was wonderful to see the LGBTQ community honored in a packed HBC full of Cyclones fans, demonstrating that #HockeyIsForEveryone.
The Cyclones wore their annual Pride jerseys, looking better than ever, while the Bison donned their white away jerseys. Both teams entered the game in desperate need of a win, with the Cyclones sitting at 0-2-2 and the Bison at 1-3-1. The Cyclones changed their lines, setting their top line as Vaive–Gosselin-Howdeshell, while the second line consisted of Isaacson-Boudens-Bajkov. Defensively, Parsons and Murphy formed the top pairing. Pavel Cajan was in goal for the Cyclones and had a save percentage of 0.968 for the season coming into the game. Mark Sinclair started in the net for the Bison.
Starting the first period, the Cyclones began strong in the offensive zone, maintaining possession for most of the first four minutes. However, the Bison struck first, with Brett Budgell scoring a goal. The Cyclones quickly responded when Lincoln Griffin received a pass from Marko Sikic in front of goaltender Mark Sinclair and wristed the puck past him, leveling the score at 1-1. With about seven minutes left in the first period, Cyclone Jacob Frasca took a boarding penalty, which resulted in a Bison power play when Connor Lockhart was penalized for high-sticking. Shortly after the power play ended, the Cyclones allowed a breakaway goal to Connor Lockhart, giving the Bison a 2-1 lead. The period concluded with the Bison ahead 2-1, despite the Cyclones holding a 12-7 advantage in shots on goal.
A minute into the second period, the Cyclones were granted another power play opportunity when Chandler Romeo received a tripping penalty. Unfortunately, they were unable to capitalize. Later, Cyclone Remy Parker high-sticked Bloomington’s Danny Katic, resulting in a four-minute power play for the Bison, which the Cyclones impressively killed off. Around ten minutes into the second period, Chongmin Lee of the Bison was penalized for tripping, but the Cyclones failed to score on their power play again. The game became more challenging for the Cyclones as Connor Lockhart netted his second goal, increasing the Bison’s lead to 3-1 with four minutes left in the period. Just before the end of the second, Cyclone Matt Boudens took a hooking penalty with 3:39 remaining, giving the Bison another power play opportunity. However, Lincoln Griffin’s determination led to a penalty against Brett Budgell for hooking as he drove to the net, which negated the Bison’s advantage. The Cyclones began their power play just five seconds before Boudens was given another penalty for tripping. As the period ended, the Bison had 31 seconds of power play time remaining to carry over, with the score at 3-1 in favor of the Bison.
The Cyclones entered the crucial third period ready to kill off a penalty, but the Bison dominated the play for the next five minutes. Seven minutes into the period, Gavin Gould of the Bison committed an undisciplined roughing penalty, giving the Cyclones a power play opportunity. However, Bison goaltender Mark Sinclair stood tall and remained the best player on the ice. Around the ten-minute mark, #95 Jacob Frasca of the Cyclones scored, making it 3-2 by wristing a shot past Sinclair.
This was his first professional goal, a moment he will remember for a long time. In the final minutes of regulation, the Cyclones’ desperation increased, especially after Captain Justin Vaive was clearly high-sticked, yet no penalty was called, upsetting the Cyclones’ fans at Heritage Bank Center. In a last-ditch effort, Head Coach Jason Payne pulled goaltender Cajan with just over a minute left in the game. However, Justin Vaive was then assessed a questionable goaltender interference penalty, effectively sealing the game with only 23.2 seconds remaining in regulation.
Mark Sinclair stood on his head in this game, stopping 27 out of 29 shots and leading the Bison to a 3-2 victory over the Cyclones. With this loss, the Cyclones fall to 0-3-2 on the season, remaining winless after five games. Although the end of the third period was a total ref show, the Cyclones had their opportunities but failed to capitalize at crucial moments. This slow start to the season is concerning, but I hold hope for the future given the young talent on the roster. The Cyclones will head north to Toledo to face the Walleye in a game scheduled for 7:15 PM EST tomorrow, looking to start climbing back up the standings after their rough start to the season.
Three Stars of the Game:
1) Connor Lockhart – 2 Goals
2) Mark Sinclair – 27/29 saves
3) Jacob Frasca – 1 Goal
I like how the cyclones never quit and almost tied the game at the end.