The Cincinnati Cyclones blew out the Iowa Heartlanders 9-2 on Shutout the Hate night at Heritage Bank Center, improving their record to 4-2-0-0.
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Cincinnati’s John Jaworski and Ryan Kirwan scored two goals each, while Luke Grainger, Nick Rhéaume, Remy Parker, Gunnar Fontaine, and Elijah Vilio all added a goal of their own. Kirwan finished with three points on the night, while Ken Appleby stopped 22 of 24 shots in the win.
Iowa fell to 3-5-1-0 in the loss.
Game Recap
Cincinnati opened up the scoring in the first, as Rhéaume fired in a screened shot from the blue line, which snuck past William Rousseau for the 1-0 lead. It was Rhéaume’s second goal of the season.
Another unexpected goal trickled past Rousseau; this time, it was Kirwan who fired the puck towards the net, but then banked off a Heartlander. Grainger was credited with the assist.
While shorthanded early in the second, Jaworski stole a puck at mid ice and sniped a shot past Rousseau on the breakaway to make it 3-0. It was his second shorthanded goal of the season.
Iowa would eventually get on the board, though, and flipped momentum their way for a little while after a Matthew Sop goal.
Later on, Rhéaume would take an undisciplined double-minor roughing penalty, and Iowa made him pay for it on the power play. Jaxon Nelson trimmed the deficit to 3-2 with the goal.
Momentum then again flipped, as Fontaine drove towards the slot and fired a puck past Rousseau for extend the lead to 4-2. It was his second goal of the season.
Just a few minutes later, Marko Sikic dished a puck right to Jaworski in the slot, who one-timed it home for the 5-2 lead late in the second.
Just over three minutes into the third period, Parker snapped one home to extend the lead to 6-2. It was his first goal of the season.
The onslaught continued as just a few minutes later, Grainger fired one home off a perfect pass from Lincoln Griffin. Then, Kirwan scored his second goal of the game to make it 8-2 Cincinnati.
Vilio then tacked on to make it 9-2 on a wrister from the blue line that Rousseau lost sight of, who then limped off the ice with an injury.
Cincinnati finished with 36 shots on goal compared to Iowa’s 24 and completely dominated this one in all facets. Cincinnati finished 1-for-3 on the power play and 3-for-4 on the penalty kill.
Also of note, Friday night’s game saw a whopping 14 penalties as the two teams boiled over many times. It should only make for a better matchup come Saturday.
Cincinnati will face Iowa again tomorrow afternoon at 4:05 PM EDT for a Bluey Matinee.
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