Patrick Polino's four-point night led the way to a 4-1 Cyclones win over the Iowa Heartlanders Saturday night in front of 6,024 fans at Heritage Bank Center.
Cincinnati ties a franchise best point streak, going 17 consecutive outings with at least a point for the first time since 2008. The 'Clones will have an opportunity to leapfrog the first place-Walleye Sunday afternoon as they enter with 87 points; just one point back of Toledo.
- Saturday's first period had a fast-paced, physical element to it, with tensions from Friday's meeting boiling over to game two of the weekend. Cincinnati struck first thanks to a bench minor penalty taken by Iowa past the midway point of the period. While on the power play, Zack Andrusiak (27) scored his team leading 12th power play goal from the right circle, blasting a one-timer by Darion Hanson on a feed strung to him from Patrick Polino.
- Iowa committed another bench minor in the second period, and collectively took three different too many men on the ice penalties. One of which came at the same time Steven Leonard was called for slashing, awarding the Cyclones a full two-minute, two-man advantage. At the 10:15 mark of the second, Jalen Smereck (7) switched places with Andrusiak, pivoting from the slot to the right-wing circle. Andrusiak then curled a pass to Smereck for the power play blast to make it 2-0.
- A trio of goals scored 1:13 apart late in the third brought Iowa back within a goal. After failing to score on a five-on-three, Zach White struck home the Heartlanders' first goal, ending the shutout bid of Mark Sinclair with only 4:28 remaining. Polino capitalized on a fortuitous hop the other way just 23 seconds later. A puck was shot on Hanson that the goaltender pumped up high into the air, only for the rebound to come directly back down, bounce off the top of the net, then Hanson's back, and into the net for the 3-1 advantage.
- Jake Durflinger scored 48 seconds later by crashing the net to make it a one-goal game again, but with an empty net in the final seconds of the third, Louie Caporusso (20) received a pass in front of the goal from Polino to convert, getting the Cyclones a 4-2 win.
- Cincinnati wraps up its three-game homestand with a Sunday afternoon tilt against Fort Wayne.
