Sunday, October 31, 1999
GRAND RAPIDS 4, CYCLONES 3
BY JOHN P. WISE
Enquirer contributor
Halloween may be today, but Saturday night the Grand Rapids Griffins turned Firstar Center into a haunted house for 8,483 Cyclones fans. The visitors treated themselves to four straight goals in the first two periods and skated to a 4-3 IHL victory.
“Grand Rapids is a big, experienced and skilled team,” Cyclones coach Ron Smith said. “We weren't sharp, and they played a strong game. But I liked the way we scrapped and tried to make something happen.”
Cincinnati drops to 4-5-2, while Grand Rapids improves to 7-4-1, five points ahead of the Cyclones in the IHL's Eastern Conference.
Four different Griffins tricked goalie Randy Petruk, whose previously untarnished record is now 2-1-0.
Cyclones Gilbert Dionne and Stefan Ustorf each extended their consecutive point-scoring streaks to four.
Dionne's points came on a pair of goals — both on re-directions. The effort gives him five goals and 10 points, both team highs. “Those were great tip-ins,” Smith said. “That's what we like to see from Gilbert.”
“This league is way too good now to make the mistakes we made (Saturday),” Dionne said. “We made some mistakes and they capitalized on them and that cost us the game.”
Grand Rapids ....... 2 2 0—4
Cincinnati ....... 1 1 1—3
First period: Cin Willis 4 (Ustorf, C. MacDonald) 8:00; GR Miller 4 (Butsayev, Schastlivy) 10:15 (pp); GR Picard 7 (Emmons, Patterson) 14:43.
Second period: GR Emmons 2 (Patterson, Rachunek) :40; GR Gorovikov 1 (Sarault) 7:18 (sh); Cin Dionne 4 (MacLeod, Simon) 8:24.
Third period: Cin Dionne 5 (Esau, Tselios) 3:52 (pp).
Shots on goal: GR 11-9-8=28; Cin 8-8-6=22. Goalies: GR Fountain (19 saves); Cin Petruk (24). Power plays: GR 1-for-5; Cin 1-for-3. Attendance: 8,483.
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