Cincinnati, OH- For the second night in a row, Cyclones goaltender Mark Sinclair gave his team a chance, but a timely second period goal for Isaac Johnson helped Newfoundland take a 3-1 victory in front of 9,286 fans at Heritage Bank Center Saturday night.
Cincinnati has dropped three consecutive games in regulation for the first time this season and sit 21-11-4-2 through 38 games. Newfoundland won 10 games in January and now have 30 wins on the year (30-10-1).
- Pavel Gogolev opened the scoring 10:51 into the first with a four-on-three power play goal, beating Mark Sinclair on a one-timer fed to the right circle from Orrin Centazzo.
- Jalen Smereck (4) evened things on a power play 13:34 into the second period. The 'Clones defenseman collected a pass from Zack Andrusiak at the center of the blue line, then wired a shot through traffic that beat Luke Cavallin, tying the game, 1-1.
- The Growlers immediately responded, scoring the go-ahead, and game-winning-goal less than two minutes later, as Johnson took advantage of a turnover to beat Sinclair and put Newfoundland up, 2-1. Todd Skirving scored an empty net goal with 24 seconds left to lift the Growlers to a 3-1 win, completing a three game sweep of Cincinnati this week.
- Sinclair made 25 saves, while Cavallin turned away 34 shots for Newfoundland.
- The 'Clones close out January with a road trip to Toledo for a Sunday evening matchup against the Walleye.
