Monday, February 28, 2000
Big crowds check out Mighty Ducks, Cyclones
BY JOHN P. WISE
Enquirer contributor
The Firstar Center and the Gardens showed Saturday that minor-league hockey is alive and well in Cincinnati.
More than 10,000 fans jammed into each arena Saturday night as both teams played key home games. The Cyclones earned a 3-2 defeat of Eastern Conference foe Milwaukee before 10,936. The Mighty Ducks tied Mid-Atlantic Division-leading Kentucky 1-1 in front of a franchise-record 10,063.
The Cyclones turned a 2-1 third-period deficit into a 3-2 win on Gilbert Dionne's two third-period goals. Perhaps the most physical game the Cy-
clones had played all year, a total of 64 stitches were administered to several on the receiving end of numerous hits.
“That's how Milwaukee plays,” Dionne said. “They like to play a hard-checking game. They're very aggressive.”
Three different occasions in the second period saw blood dotting the ice.
Shane Willis needed eight of those stitches, while teammate Todd Simon sprained his right wrist and was unable to make the trip to Grand Rapids for the team's game there Sunday. The Griffins, near the top of the Eastern Conference all season, turned the game into a rout and won 6-1.
Still, the Cyclones won two of their three conference games in a three-day stretch, and now see their longest break since mid-January. Cincinnati doesn't play until Friday, when it visits Utah. Playoff fever returns when they travel to Milwaukee for a game next Wednesday and play host to the Admirals in their next home game March 10.
The Ducks, still in the Mid-Atlantic Division basement, trail Louisville by nine points for fourth place. It seems the fourth-place team changes from week to week, an indication that the division is perhaps the best in the AHL.
“Last year the New England Division was superior while our division was young,” he said. “But this year, our division seems to be doing pretty well.”
Of the top six teams in the AHL, four are the four teams ahead of Cincinnati in the Mid-Atlantic.
“I'm sure the people in Anaheim and Detroit see that our young players are playing competitive hockey,” Mantha added, referring to the NHL teams with whom Cincinnati is affiliated.
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