The Cincinnati Cyclones stunned the Toledo Walleye on Friday night in front of 8,716 fans at the Heritage Bank Center, scoring four goals in the third period, completing the comeback 5-3 win. This win was the first win for Cincinnati after trailing heading into the third period, quite the shocking stat, but nonetheless, they pulled the big-time win off.
First Period:
Things got off to a rocky start for Carter Gylander 4:43 into the first period, when he mishandled the puck behind his net. This mistake proved costly as Marko Sikic was quick to capitalize, tapping it in after a setup from Chris Dodero, who made a nice play behind the net.
The game took a turn when Justin Vaive went off for slashing, giving Toledo a golden opportunity on the power play. They didn’t waste it, and Carson Bantle scored to tie the game at 1-1. It was a close call, though—many thought there was a case for goaltender interference, but the goal counted, much to the dismay of the Cyclones.
As the first period was winding down, Cincinnati’s Josh Burnside committed a head-scratching interference penalty deep in his own zone, setting up 33 seconds of power play time that would carry over into the second period with the score still tied at 1-1.
Second Period:
The second period kicked off with a bang as Rhett Parsons and Darian Pilon decided to settle things with a fight, forcing the refs to jump in and separate them before they each headed to the box for five minutes.
Midway through the game, Toledo took their first lead thanks to a slick pass from Jalen Smereck to Mitchell Lewandowski, who made it 2-1. It was an impressive goal—his seventeenth of the season.
he middle frame ended with a bit of chaos after Smereck jumped a Cyclone player, leading to a controversial double roughing penalty against Justin Vaive. This handed Cincinnati their fourth penalty kill of the night. It was perplexing how Smereck didn’t face any repercussions for his actions, leaving fans frustrated with the inconsistent officiating in the ECHL once again.
Third Period:
Toledo’s Brandon Kruse took an undisciplined delay of game penalty after shooting the puck over the boards, which later led to a Curtis Hall power play goal, evening the game at 2-2. The slick forehand-to-backhand goal was the Cleveland Monsters signee’s first goal as a Cyclone, and it was a pretty big one.
Right after evening the game, Kyle Bollers fired a loose puck home from the slot to give Cincinnati a 3-2 lead early in the third period.
Cincinnati’s Ty Voit was later caught with a hooking penalty, and Toledo’s power play made them pay again, with Carson Bantle scoring the power play goal—his second goal of the night.
The onslaught of penalties continued as Nolan Moyle took a holding penalty, sending Cincinnati to their sixth power play, which they capitalized on for the second time of the night. Chris Dodero sniped a shot past Carter Gylander’s glove off a feed from Kyle Bollers, regaining the lead for the Cyclones at 4-3 with seven minutes left.
Chas Sharpe later sealed the deal for Cincinnati with a 200-foot empty-net goal, securing a 5-3 win over the Central Division-leading Walleye.
The Cyclones finally hit the 20-win mark with this big-time victory over Toledo, sitting at 20-25-8-0 with 19 games left in the season.
Despite taking six penalties against the high-powered Toledo Walleye, the Cyclones went 2/5 on the power play while limiting the Walleye to just two power play goals on six attempts. Heading into Saturday’s game against Toledo, they cannot afford to take six penalties again, or it will haunt them.
However, on Friday, Cincinnati didn’t necessarily “win” the special teams battle but rather won the five-on-five battle, which is all that mattered in the end.
No matter how you look at it, this win is huge for momentum purposes and the standings, especially given the Fuel’s 7-2 loss and the Bison falling 3-1 to Worcester on Friday night. The Cyclones now sit only a point behind the Fuel for fifth place and three behind Bloomington for the final playoff spot. The Fuel have two games in hand, but the Bison have now caught up and have zero games in hand.
The Cyclones will travel to Toledo today to play the Walleye and close out the home-and-home series for what will be yet another huge game as the season winds down.
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