Saturday, February 06, 1999
LONG BEACH 6, CYCLONES 3
Ice Dogs play as if on mission
BY DAVE HELLER
Enquirer contributor
The Cyclones could have used plenty of excuses: bad officiating, freaky bounces or a late night bus trip. But the reality is Cincinnati should have beaten a Long Beach team that is decimated with injuries and offered no alibis.
Long Beach staved off a late Cyclones rally to beat Cincinnati 6-3 at the Crown. The Cyclones (29-18-4) were just 1-for-7 on the power play, compared to Long Beach's 3-for-8 efficiency.
“You have to give them all the credit. They don't have as much talent as we do and they worked hard,” Jeff Shevalier said.
Said Cyclones coach Ron Smith: “They had a mission and accomplished it. I think you should win games against banged up teams sometimes, but it's not as easy at appears sometimes.”
Lonnie Loach scored two goals for Long Beach (31-20-1), including a critical score, which made it 4-1. Dumping the puck into the Cyclones zone during a power play, it took a funny bounce off the glass and squirted by goalie Jani Hurme, who was fooled by the shot.
“The bounces went all to them, but they made them happen, they created those bounces” Smith said.
The Cyclones, who rallied from three goals down in the final 8:29 of a 8-7 shootout win in Long Beach Nov. 3, scored twice in the final six minutes to cut the lead to 4-3.
Goals by Jeff Shevalier and Scott Morrow cut the lead to 4-3. Morrow's score, a dribbling puck through the slot, somehow got past Long Beach goalie Ryan Bach, the former Colorado College goaltender who lost to Michigan in the 1996 NCAA Championship game at the former Riverfront Coliseum (now the Crown).
But Long Beach scored twice in a span of 40 seconds to take the air out of the Cyclones attempted comeback.
The Ice Dogs had eight of their regular players scratched.
Long Beach ....... 2 1 3—6
Cincinnati ....... 0 1 2—3
First period: 1, DeBrusk 7 (Manlow, McCambridge), 13;44; 2, Tallaire 12 (Ferner, Modry), ppg, 16:35.
Second period: 3, C, Simon 18 (Dionne, Wells), ppg, 6:07; 4, L, Loach 10 (Tallaire, Ferner), ppg, 10:44.
Third period: 5, L, Loach 11 (Modry, Ferner), ppg, 2:23; 6, C, Shevalier 20 (Patterson, Morrow), 14:06; 7, C, Morrow 22 (Patterson, Wells), 15:23; 8, L, Lafayette (Bylsma, Jutras), 18:50; 9, L, Tallaire 13 (Williams, Modry), 19:29.
Shots on goal: Long Beach, 10-12-11-33; Cincinnati, 8-19-12-39. Power play opportunities: Long Beach, 3-8; Cincinnati, 1-7. Goalies: Long Beach, Bach (7-6-1); Cincinnati, Hurme (20-10-3). Attendance: 5,868.
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