Sunday, February 06, 2000
Cyclones 4, Kansas City 3
BY MARK SCHMETZER
Enquirer contributor
On Coca-Cola NASCAR night at Firstar Center, it was appropriate the Kansas City-Cincinnati hockey game had more jockeying for position than the last lap at the Daytona 500.
The Cyclones earned the checkered flag with a 4-3 victory before a crowd of 10,812, the third-largest Cincinnati home crowd of the season and the fourth to reach five figures.
“Kansas City is not the kind of team you want to get into a shootout with,” Cincinnati coach Ron Smith said, “but we survived.”
Left wing Brian Felsner snapped a 3-3 tie with his ninth goal of the season at 14:07 of the third period. The goal was his second since being acquired from Houston Jan. 19.
Cincinnati snapped a four-game losing streak, which had come on the heels of a five-game winning streak. After scoring just one goal in the first 26 minutes of the game, the two teams traded five over the next six, including one pair just 21 seconds apart and another separated by :14.
Cincinnati defenseman Eric Dandenault added a goal to the assist he recorded on the Cyclones' first goal of the night, the eighth of the year by center Craig MacDonald.
“I figured we should just jump right into the play,” Dandenault said of his assist on MacDonald's shorthand goal 3:13 into the game. “We needed this win, especially with the nice crowd and everything.”
Cincinnati goalie Jean-Marc Pelletier, one of the players acquired by the NHL Carolina Hurricanes in their Jan. 23 trade of Keith Primeau, had 26 saves with Carolina goalie coach Steve Weeks in attendance.
“He's a presence in the net, that's for sure,” Smith said of the 6-foot-3, 200-pound Pelletier.
Kansas City ....... 0 3 0—3
Cincinnnati ....... 1 2 1—4
First Period: 1. Cin, MacDonald 8, (Dandenault, Ritchie), 3:13 (sh).
Second Period: 2. KC, Bullock 1, (Ling, Wood), 7:16. 3. Cin, Ustorf 14, (unassisted) 7:37. 4. KC, Chyzowski 26, (Haggerty), 12:37. 5. Cin, Dandenault 3, (Kuznik, Felsner), 13:06. 6. KC, Wood 10, (Cirone, Ferschweiler), 13:20.
Third Period: 7. Cin, Felsner 9 (Dionne), 4:07.
Shots on goal: KC 4-13-12=29; Cin 13-9-9=31. Power plays: KC 0-of-4; Cin 0-of-5. Goalies: KC, Racine (27 saves); Cin, Pelletier (26 saves). Attendance: 10,812.
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