The Cincinnati Cyclones, the ECHL
affiliate of the Montreal Canadiens and Nashville
Predators, play four games this week--including a
pair at U.S. Bank Arena.  Wednesday night (Feb. 10),
Kalamazoo comes to town on a Wet Wednesday at 7:30pm.
 Friday (Feb. 12), the club heads to Toledo for a 7pm
contest that will be carried on 1530 Homer - The
Sports Animal.  Saturday (Feb. 13), Johnstown comes
to town on ‘Barret Ehgoetz Kids Replica Jersey
T-Shirt Night’ at 7:30pm.  The teams meet again on
Sunday night (Feb. 14) at the Cambria County War
Memorial.

CHUCK MOVES UP:  Cyclones Head Coach Chuck Weber
reached another milestone with Friday night’s win
over Kalamazoo.  The triumph was his 163rd regular
season win, which pushed him past Greg Puhalski for
ninth-most through the first four full seasons of
coaching.  He is a win shy of tying current St. Louis
Blues coach Davis Payne (164) for eighth-most.
Weber’s 133 triumphs through his first three
campaigns were fourth-most in league history. 

EHGOETZ NEARS TOP SPOT:  The Cincinnati Cyclones
all-time point lead has been held for more than a
decade now by Sheldon Gorski.  While Gorski never
played a game in the Queen City (his career was spent
when the team was in Louisville), he amassed 213
points for the club.  Barret Ehgoetz tied Gorski for
the record this past week.  The fifth year forward
has 75 goals and 137 assists in his career with the
Cyclones.

ABOUT FRIDAY NIGHT...:  The Cyclones rallied to claim
a 3-2 shootout win over Kalamazoo.  Dustin Sproat and
Brett Robinson scored the goals in regulation time
and a last minute goal by the Wings forced overtime
and a shootout.  After Kalamazoo scored on its first
two shots of the shootout, the Cyclones responded by
netting four consecutive scores to take the triumph.
 Matt Pierce, Mark Voakes, Scott Reynolds and Barret
Ehgoetz scored in the extra session to grab the win.
 Jeremy Smith stopped 34 shots in regulation and
overtime and then stonewalled three of six shooters
in the shootout.

ABOUT THURSDAY NIGHT...:  The Cyclones exploded for
three first period goals and never looked back in a
6-3 demolition of the defending Kelly Cup champion
South Carolina Stingrays.  Maxime Lacroix led the
charge against his former team with a pair of goals
and a pair of assists.  Brett Robinson matched the
effort with a pair of lamplighters and a pair of
helpers and Matt Pierce chipped in with a goal and
two assists.  Robert Mayer turned away 20 shots in
collecting his 13th win.

PIERCE TIES CLUB RECORD:  Cyclones rookie forward
Matt Pierce tied a club record in the 6-3 win
Thursday night over South Carolina.  The Amprior, ON
native finished the game +5, which ties him with Greg
Labenski for the best in team history.  Pierce missed
out on a plus on the opening goal, but was on the ice
for each of Cincinnati’s last five goals.  Labenski
set the mark on December 27, 2002 by turning in his
+5 in a 13-2 wrecking of Reading.  Even more
impressive for Labenski was the fact that seven of
the 13 goals were on the power play.

THE VIEW IS BETTER FROM THE TOP:  The Cyclones are
the leaders of the North Division of the American
Conference.  Cincinnati has held the top spot in the
division for 33 days.  The club led the North
Division for 51 days a year ago in claiming its
second consecutive regular season crown and led 120
days during the Kelly Cup run of 2008.  In 2006-07,
the Cyclones were on top for 90 days.  The 294 days
at the top are the most by any North Division team
over the past four seasons.  The club will hold the
top spot until at least Friday night.

LOG JAM!:  First through fourth place in the North
Division are separated by just eight points, making
it the closest divisional race in the ECHL.  If the
Kelly Cup playoffs began today--all four teams in the
North would qualify for the postseason.  Last year,
the second-closest divisional race was in the Pacific
Division, where first and fourth place were decided
by eleven points.  The top four teams in the North
(of seven teams) were seven points apart a year ago.
 Tight races in the North Division are not anything
new.  The top four have been within seven points of
one another in three of the past six years.

THIRTEEN OVER!:  Friday night’s win moved the
Cyclones to thirteen games above the break even point
for the first time this season (30-17-1).  On the
first try at thirteen over--the club made it.  The
last time the Cyclones have been further than
thirteen games over the break even point was at the
end of last season when the squad was 15 above at
41-26-5. 

GUNNING FOR 30:  With the win Friday night, the
Cyclones hit 30 wins--second-fastest in team history.
 The fastest to 30 wins was during 2007-08, when the
squad won on February 1.

THE AHL LOVES THE CYCLONES:  Friday morning, Maxime
Lacroix was recalled by the Hamilton Bulldogs.  After
Friday’s game, the Houston Aeros were loaned Matt
Pierce and Brock Sheahan.  With the assignments to
the American Hockey League, a total of 15 Cyclones
players have earned promotions through 21 different
recalls.  Cincinnati has lost 165 man-games due to
participation in the AHL.

IT’S MAGIC...:  While it is a bit early to be looking
at playoff matchups and possible scenarios--the
Cyclones do have a ‘magic number’ of 41 to qualifying
for an American Conference Kelly Cup berth.
Cincinnati would need to finish with more points than
any four of the following to make the field (possible
points in brackets):  Johnstown (84), Trenton (91),
Reading (100), Gwinnett (101), Wheeling (101),
Florida (102) and Elmira (105).

O’HANLEY HEATS UP:  Cyclones defenseman Brian
O’Hanley did not score a goal in his first 111
professional games.  In his first game of 2010, he
netted a score in the win at Johnstown.  In the 17
games in the 2010 calendar year, Brian has five goals
and nine assists for 14 points.

MORE O’HANLEY:  Cyclones defenseman Brian O’Hanley
has also moved into fourth place in the ECHL among
defensemen with a +16 plus/minus rating.  O’Hanley
has been even or better in 33 of his 44 games this
season and is +11 in the 16 games since New Year’s Eve. 

ABOUT WEDNESDAY NIGHT...:  The Cyclones upended
Wheeling, 3-2, at U.S. Bank Arena.  Maxime Lacroix
had a power play goal and scored the game winner with
a shorthanded effort.  Jeremy Smith re-directed 31
shots to take the victory.

DEFENSE SOLID:  The Cyclones have a 2.81 goals
against average, second-best in the ECHL.  Cincinnati
is allowing just 26.8 shots per game--again,
second-best in the ECHL.  The penalty kill ranks
twelfth in the league at 82.0 percent, while the club
leads the league with thirteen shorthanded goals.

GETTING SHORTY:  The Cyclones lead the ECHL with 13
shorthanded goals--three more than Toledo.  The club
record for shorthanded goals in a season is 14. 

POWER SURGE:  The Cyclones enjoyed an improvement on
the power play during the month of January, having
scored man-advantage goals in eleven of the 14 games.
 Cincinnati punched its ticket on 16 of 88 power play
chances (18.2 percent), moving from 18th in the
standings in the statistic--up three spots to 15th. 

PRETTY GOOD:  The Cyclones (current record: 30-17-1)
have the second-most standings points (61) that they
have had through 48 games in team history.  Through
48 games of 2007-08, the club posted a 37-8-3 record
(77 points).  The 1995-96 club from Louisville
(27-17-4) previously held the second-best mark with
58 points through 48 games.  It is also the
second-fastest period of time in team history to 30
wins.

NOT AFRAID OF A LITTLE OVERTIME:  The Cyclones lead
the ECHL in winning percentage in overtime.
Cincinnati has won six of the seven contests that
have extended past regulation time in 2009-10.  The
club is 2-0 in overtime games, including the 3-2
triumph over South Carolina on January 29.  The squad
is 4-1 in shootouts.  Of teams at the ‘AA’ level or
higher, the Cyclones have the best winning percentage
at .857.  Grand Rapids (AHL) is second at .833.

ATTENDANCE NUMBERS STRONG:  The Cyclones are
averaging 3474 per game through the first 24 contests
at U.S. Bank Arena, which ranks 16th in the ECHL.
The club has already drawn the second-largest (10,920
for Throwback Night on November 6) and fourth-largest
(8944 for Education In Hockey Day on November 17)
regular season crowds in team history.  The January
23rd crowd of 6485 was the third-largest of the
season and 15th biggest in team history.  Friday
night’s gate of 5857 was the 19th biggest in the
record book.  Attendance at Cyclones games is up 11.9
percent over last year’s season average and is up
28.8 percent over the first 24 home games of a year
ago.  The club has drawn 83,375 through the
turnstiles after 24 home games.  Last season, the
club did not draw that many people through the first
29 games (February 27, 2009).

CLIMBING HIGH...:  When the Cyclones returned to
hockey in 2006-07, they finished 25th of 25 teams in
attendance at 1844 per game.  During the 2007-08
Kelly Cup march, the squad attracted 2523 per
game--an increase of 36.8 percent.  That percentage
was the greatest of any team playing minor pro
hockey.  Last year, the team attracted 3104 per
game--an increase of 23 percent, second-best in all
of minor pro hockey.  There are 78 North American
minor pro hockey teams playing in 2009-10 and the
Cyclones rank 51st on that list.

COACHES SHOW:  The Coors Light Cyclones Coaches Show
originates each Monday night from Jefferson Hall at
Newport on the Levee.  Head Coach Chuck Weber joins
Nick Brunker each week from 7-8pm.  This week,
goaltender Robert Mayer and defenseman Patrick Prokop
will be the special guests.