Cyclones Wind Down

I drove up to Cincinnati to watch the Cincinnati  Cyclones play the Toledo Walleyes in the Kelly Cup playoffs (the ECHL's version of the Stanley Cup).

After about a four hour drive I got to the riverfront area where the football stadium, baseball field, and hockey arena are all lined up side by side. Then, I sat in a line of cars for forty minutes trying to get into the parking garage near the hockey arena only to have it close (full) when I was two cars short of turning in. I can hear you thinking "Wow, that must have been a heck of a large crowd for the hockey game!" Nope. The Reds had a game scheduled to start 30 minutes before the hockey game. It was raining, cold, and miserable and thousands of baseball fans were everywhere (tell me again how nobody goes to baseball games). On the other hand, there were about 6,000 of us who had enough sense to come in out of the rain and watch hockey.

Unfortunately, things didn't go so well for the home team. The Cyclones were already down 3-1 in the series and came in fired up. The first period was pretty much all the Cyclones swarming the Toledo goalie and by the end of the period the Cyclones were up 1-0. The second flipped the script and the Walleyes were all over and they got the puck into the goal twice. Then they dug in and as much as the Cyclones tried they couldn't get another puck past the goalie. (Boooo!)

Anyway, the crowd was awesome. They were going nuts through the entire third period and they were pretty dang loud through the first two as well. The drunk guy in the next section over from me was upset with me because (a) he had imbibed quite a bit, and (b) I was watching the game instead of spending my time beating on the glass in front of me. He and his buddies were having a blast despite the fact that it was pretty obvious they didn't understand anything about hockey.

Cincinnati's a great sports town. It's a shame they don't have an NHL team and they definitely should have an AHL team, but until that day the Cyclones are a lot of fun and you can buy waffle goetta dogs while you're at the game.

The rare Toledo Walleyed Eagle spots its prey.

You shall not pass!

If you shoot the puck through the ref's legs off the faceoff it's hard for the other team's guy to follow it.