CINCINNATI — The first-place Cincinnati Cyclones tallied four power-play goals, including both ends of a 5-on-3 advantage that helped them overcome an early two-goal deficit, in a 4-3 victory over the Johnstown Chiefs on Wednesday morning.
A school-kids crowd of 4,113 attended the special early contest, which began at 10 a.m. at U.S. Bank Arena, and watched the Cyclones improve to 8-0 against the Chiefs this season.
Johnstown limited Cincinnati to a mere 14 shots on goal and held the Cyclones to one third-period shot – Oliver Latendresse’s game-winning goal.
Cincinnati went 4-for-6 on the power play and improved to 49-10-4 overall.
The game started on a positive note for the Chiefs, who also lost at Cincinnati 3-2 on Monday night.
Johnstown had goals by Alexandre Imbeault at 2:51 and Jason Spence at 4:07 to lead 2-0.
But Imbeault and defenseman Brandon Straub each had minor penalties called against them 32 seconds apart.
Cincinnati’s Mathieu Aubin made the Chiefs pay as he converted both ends of the 5-on-3.
Aubin scored nine seconds into the two-man advantage at 8:22 and tallied again during the 5-on-4 at 8:57.
Latendresse converted a power play at 14:24 of the second and scored on the man advantage at 4:11 of the third.
The Cyclones have the league’s top power-play unit at 22.3 percent entering the game.
The 30-29-2-3 Chiefs put pressure on Cincinnati goaltender Cody Rudkowsky, but he made 31 saves. Defenseman Mike Knight scored with 2:18 left in the game to pull the Chiefs within one, but Cincinnati held on to improve to 33-3-1 when leading after two periods.
Latendresse (two goals, two assists), Aubin (two goals, two assists) and ECHL leading scorer David Desharnais (four assists) each had four-point games.
Imbeault had two points for Johnstown. Newcomer Joel Gasper, signed out of Robert Morris, had his first professional point, an assist on Imbeault’s early goal.
