Cincinnati Cyclones Top South Carolina Stingrays 3-1 in ECHL Playoffs

MLN - THE RAW FEED - www.mlntherawfeed.com - NORTH CHARLESTON, South Carolina  –  The Cincinnati
Cyclones used a three power play goal first period
barrage in a 3-1 win over South Carolina on Friday
night.  Jason Deitsch had a pair of goals and Cedrick
Desjardins stopped 35 shots in picking up the victory.

The win gives the Cyclones with a three games to one
lead over South Carolina in the best of seven
American Conference championship.  The winner of this
series will advance to the Kelly Cup Finals which
will begin Memorial Day weekend.


ADVERTISEMENT The fifth game will be Saturday night at South
Carolina.  Face off is at 7:05pm and the game can be
heard on 96 Rock.

The Cyclones exploded for three power play goals to
open a 3-0 edge.  Rookie Ryan Maki opened the scoring
8:32 into the frame, pushing home his first playoff
goal past the right leg of goaltender Davis Parley.
David Desharnais and Jean-Michel Daoust had the
assists.  At 17:31, Jason Deitsch scooped up a
rebound at the right goal post and shoveled in for a
power play goal, as Sean Perkins and Olivier
Latendresse added the assists.  At 19:07, Deitsch
struck again with Perkins and Latendresse handing out
the assists on the power play goal.  Cincinnati won
the shots on goal battle, 17-11, in the frame.

There was no scoring in the second period, but each
team had three powerplay chances.  South Carolina had
the best opportunity—getting a full two minute
powerplay while Mathieu Aubin and Olivier Latendresse
served penalties.  The Stingrays also won the shots
on goal battle, 11-5.

South Carolina scored the lone goal of the third
period, as Andrew Gordon scored a breakaway goal at
12:11, his fourth of the postseason.  That made the
final score, 3-1.  The shots again favored the
Stingrays, 14-4.  For the game, South Carolina held
the shots lead—36-26.

Cincinnati was three-for-eight on the powerplay,
while the Stingrays were one-for-six.

The series is the first time that a professional
sporting conference final has been played in
Cincinnati since the Cyclones played in the 2002-03
ECHL’s Kelly Cup playoffs.  In that series,
Cincinnati dropped the first three games of that
session—before bouncing back to win three in a row.
Atlantic City then won the seventh game and kept the
Cyclones one win away from a championship series berth.

This was the fourth game of the best of seven
American Conference Championship series.  The winner
of this series will meet the winner of the Las Vegas
and Utah series for the Kelly Cup championship, where
Las Vegas enjoys a 3-0 lead.  The Cyclones (55-12-5)
were the North Division, American Conference and
Brabham Cup (best overall ECHL regular season record)
champions in the regular season.  Cincinnati swept
Johnstown in four games and knocked off Reading in
seven games to get here.  South Carolina (47-22-3)
has won all three of its best of five series in five
games.  First, the Stingrays knocked off Augusta,
then Gwinnett and then Columbia.

Tickets for all Cyclones games can be purchased at
the U.S. Bank Arena box office, all Ticketmaster
outlets including select Kroger stores, charge by
phone at 513-562-4949 or online at ticketmaster.com.
The most up-to-date information and broadcast of the
games can be found on our website
www.cycloneshockey.com.  

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