The Cincinnati Cyclones were shut out 5-0 by the Utah Grizzlies on Saturday night in what turned into an abysmal showing on Pucks N’ Pups Night. Cincinnati fell to 25-26-3-0 and remains sixth in the Central Division. Tommy Scarfone stopped 23 of 28 shots in the loss.
Utah saw goals from four different skaters, including two from Evan Friesen, while Reed Lebster and Luke Manning each added one. Hunter Miska turned aside all 32 Cincinnati shots for his first shutout of the season.
In the standings, Indy picked up a 2-1 overtime win against Wichita on Saturday night. Cincinnati now sits eight points behind Indy, three behind Bloomington for the final playoff spot, and one behind Kalamazoo. All of those teams mentioned have played 54 games.
Game Recap
Utah opened the scoring early when Lebster fought home a rebound off a shot from Tyler Gratton to make it 1-0.
Friesen doubled the lead on the power play after Jordan Kaplan was called for slashing.
Just over 30 seconds into the second period, Manning capitalized on another defensive lapse from the Cyclones’ blue line to make it 3-0.
Friesen added his second of the night early in the third, his 20th of the season, stretching the lead to 4-0.
Utah made it 5-0 on another power play goal, their second of the night, with Gratton credited for the finish.
Despite outshooting Utah 32-28, Cincinnati never found the back of the net. Most of their attempts came from the outside, and they struggled to generate anything dangerous for the majority of the night.
Also, the Cyclones gave up two power-play goals and took five total penalties. It was not a good special teams showing at all against one of the bottom Western Conference teams.
After a stretch of winning not long ago, the Cyclones have now dropped back-to-back games in regulation. Week to week, it remains unclear which version of this team will show up each night. With 18 games remaining in the regular season, time is running out to find that consistency.
Cincinnati is back at it tomorrow at 3:00 PM ET for a rematch with Utah.
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