Good times in the old ECHL

[Queen Prawn]

Last night was the first time in a good while we went to an ECHL game (from what we could remember March of '04 was the last ECHL game we went to see).

 

It was so freaking awesome to see the Cincinnati Cyclones back in action! From the money that was put into the team, I have a hard time believing this is a one year deal. F5 was looking as "mascotty" as ever, throwing shirts and playing catch with the crowd. They have new jerseys (and now so does Brian lol) and a full squad. I mention this last part because in either 01 or 02, when they made the playoffs Don Biggs came out of retirement so they would have two full lines.

 

Their goalie was fantastic! He made 37 saves and got a shut-out to show for it! The officials are as bad as I remember. They tried their hardest to get a goal for the Storm, but no dice!

 

The fighting...nothing like a good ole ECHL fight. There were about 3 (give or take haha) fights with the last one being the fiercest and most dangerous. One of the Cyclones (44 Martin) got his ass kicked at center ice while some of the other guys were fighting by the goalie. Another player jumped over Martin from what we (the crowd behind and next to the Cyclones bench) could see, the jumping Cyclones player slashed the arm of Martin. There was a bit of blood at center ice as well as in the towel as the trainer was helping the poor kid off the ice. One of the Toledo guys is likely looking at a 1 game suspension for intent to injure (from another fight that was going on at that time). I am waiting on some articles hoping that the slashed kid is okay . The one thing that survived the 2 year layoff was the bad blood between these two teams.

 

The attendance last night was listed as 3168 and the night before it was right around 4358. If they can keep this up, they will be around for at least a little while in this form of the Cincy Cyclones. B)

 

The ECHL officials were as horrible as I remembered. Between BS penalties and obvious penalties not called, it led to a couple of the fights that could have been prevented if the refs made the calls they should have made. Case in point: the puck went out of play so play was stopped and a Storm player who was behind a Clones player (both behind the net) came from behind and knocked him down (really hard shot at that). Was a penalty called? Yes, on the Clones player for interference - guess he didn't get his ass out of the way in a timely fashion. (No he wasn't the one who was going for the puck that knocked it out of play, that was a different Clones player and nothing was called on the cheap shot artist on the Storm).

 

All in all, completely worth the road trip to Cincy. We plan on doing it again for the 11/6 game which is against the Florida Everblades (Canes ECHL affiliate) - not sure who I am going to cheer for that one since that will be my first Everblades game.

 

GO CYCLONES!!!