Cincinnati Cyclones blow past the competition

READING, Pa – If there is a division in the ECHL that is worth watching, it is easily the North Division where there is a six team race for four playoff spots.
The Cincinnati Cyclones, Johnstown Chiefs, Wheeling Nailers,, and Elmira Jackals are all separated by three points, while the Trenton Devils and Dayton Bombers are deadlocked in a fifth place tie, only five points from Elmira for the fourth and final playoff spot in the division. Only the Reading Royals are a distant 22 points away from fourth and look forward to next season. Here is a current look at the North Division (All stats as of February 3, 2009). Cincinnati – The defending ECHL champion Cincinnati Cyclones hardly looked like the team that won the Kelly Cup at the start of the season, but things have turned around dramatically for the Cyclones, especially on offense. 

At the beginning of the season Cincinnati were tied for last goals. These days the offense is ranked second overall with 172 goals. Barry Ehgoetz leads the Cyclone offense with 18 goals and 29 assists, good for eighth overall in points. Rookie Mark Van Guilder is tied for 16^th overall in points with 42 points, and seventh in rookie scoring. Cincinnati have risen from tenth on the power play to fourth overall, but the penalty killing unit continues struggle. The Cyclones are dead last in penalty killing which has accounted for 51 of the teams 167 goals allowed. Prospect Watch – Right winger J.T Wyman is a Montreal Canadiens prospect drafted in the fourth round, 100 overall in the 2004 NHL Entry Draft. So far in 12 games Wyman has no goals and 5 assists. Johnstown – The Chiefs lead the division with a 26-16-2-0 record, and are tied in points with Wheeling with 54. Wins is the first tiebreaker, Johnstown is technically in first place. One reason the race has tightened is the Chiefs are 5-5 in their last 10 games. The good news for Chiefs fans is the team is on a three game winning streak. Johnstown will have to crank up the offense in order to, not only win the division, but make a mark come playoff time. Special teams have not done well overall and must improve. Since December, the power play unit slide from 11^th to 16^th, but the penalty killing unit has remained steady in tenth. The Chiefs have slide on offense due in large part to the power play where they were ranked fourth in offense in the American Conference but has since slide to sixth with 143 goals. The defense continues to be the team strength ranking third overall allowing only 127 goals in 44 games. The offense continues to be led by Petr Pohl with 18 goals and 22 assists. Rookie Ryan Del Monte is tied for 12 in rookie scoring with 11 goals and 22 assists. Goaltender Kris Mayotte made the ECHL All-Star team and is 11^th in goals against average (2.70) and 13^th save percentage (.912). Prospect Watch – Pohl is a prospect of the Columbus Blue Jacket, and was taken in the 2004 NHL Entry Draft, fifth round (133 overall). Wheeling – The Nailers offense continues to roll along having scored 177 goals in 44 games, good for first overall league. Oddly enough the Nailers are led by a couple of rookies: Bryan Ewing, who is tied for first overall with the Florida Everblades Kevin Baker with 60 points, while teammate Jordan Morrison is right behind him in third place with 55 points. In fact, the Nailers have 4 rookies in the top 20 in rookie scoring. Only Tommy Goebel is not on the Nailers active roster. Another rookie, defenseman Elgin Reid is fourth scoring by a defenseman with 11 goals and 20 assists.   The Nailers do not would have a goaltender in the top 20. Goaltenders David Brown and Curtis Darling have been solid in net for the Nailers. Brown has a goals against average of 2.87 and a save percentage of .912, and has clearly had the better season that Darling, but Brown has started in only half of the teams starts. Brown has 15 while Darling has 30. Rookie Jordan Alford has one start. One look at the Nailers power play and you get a good idea why the Nailers are second in the division. Wheeling ranks third overall on the power play, but the penalty kill has dropped from eighth all the say down to sixteen. Prospect Watch – Brown, an 8^th round draft pick of Pittsburgh in 2004 (228^th overall) continues to show why the Penguins will keep their eye his talents for the next couple of seasons. Elmira – The Jackals are once again having a solid season since coming over from the IHL. This season the Jackals are once again in the midst of the playoff hunt sitting in fourth place. Elmira has five more wins (24) than loses (19), but they have scored six less goals (147) than they have allowed (153). The Jackals do not have a scorer in the top 20, but Pierre-Luc Faubert has 14 goals and 24 assists to lead the Jackals offense. Steve Yetman has 17 goals to lead the team. The Jackals have six players on the team with 10 or more goals. Balanced scoring is the name of the game for Elmira as 26 different players on the team have scored at least one goal this season. Elmira does not have a goaltender in the top 20. One explanation is that the Jackals have used six different goaltenders so far this season. Rookie Mitch O’Keefe has started the most games (24), but Michael Teslak, who has started in 13 games, has a goals against average of 2.99 and a save percentage of .898. Prospect Watch – The Jackals are affiliated with the Ottawa Senators but Teslak was assigned to the team by the Philadelphia Flyers. Also, left wing prospect Kaleb Betts is a former eigth round draft pick in 2002 by the Nashville Predators. Betts has 6 goals and 7 assists in 35 games. Dayton – The Bombers might be tied for fifth place, but making strides in the division might be tough. Dayton has played in 46 games, four more than Trenton with whom they are tied in the division standings. The news doesn’t get any better since the Bombers are 1-9-1-0 in their last 10 games, and are on an 8 game winless streak. The Bombers have scored 146 goals, good for fourth in the division, but have allowed 155. Goaltender David Shantz continues to be the Bombers top player ranking tenth in goals against average (2.68). Rookie Paul Drew has started 22 games, but Shantz should get the nod in net if Dayton is to make a playoff run. Rookie Justin Bowers who is tied for ninth in rookie scoring with 36 points. Dan Riedel leads the team in goals with 18, while Mike McLean leads the team in points with 44, tied for 13^th overall. Prospect Watch – Shantz, a Florida Panthers prospect, was originally draft by the Panthers in the second round (37^th overall) of the 2004 NHL Entry Draft. Trenton – The T-Devils are practically a mirror image of their NHL parent club, the New Jersey Devils. Despite a slow start to their season, Trenton has moved up in the standings, and are not only making life interesting in the playoff hunt, but with games in hand on the teams ahead of them in the standings, you can bet the Devils the one team that the rest of the division will hate to play between now and the end of the season. The thing that has been an issue with Trenton is they cant score, but can play stellar defense. Does that sound familiar to you? It should since that is the trademark of New Jersey. Only two other teams in the conference, Gwinnett and Mississippi, have scored less than the Devils (129). The Devils however are the conferences third best defense (122). Like Elmira, the Devils are 7-3 in their last ten games to get back into the playoff hunt. Prospect Watch – The Devils currently do not have an NHL prospect on the roster Reading – The Royals continue to struggle despite firing their head coach, but at least the team is more competitive than before. The team is having their worst start in team history, so it should come as no surprise that the Royals have the worst record in the ECHL. The Royals have allowed a league worst 172 goals, and has scored only 133. Trades and the signing of free agents were hoped to have rectified some of the teams offensive ills, but the Royals are slowly making progress. In fact, the Royals have scored more than Trenton, and are ranked tenth on the power play, up from 17^th. The bad news is the team is 21^st out of 22 teams on the penalty killing. Prospect Watch – Goaltender James Reimer, a fourth round pick (99^th overall) in 2006 of the Toronto Maple Leafs, continues to struggle at the ECHL level with a 3.51 goals against average, and a .897 save percentage. Contact the author at: Brian.Jennings@prohockeynews.com Contact the photographers at: Brian.Mechling@prohockeynews.com  
and Lewis.Bleiman@prohockeynews.com