Wesley Chapel, FL – Another week has come and gone inside of Hub City Tampa for the Northern Cyclones organization. Yet again, NCDC, Premier and Elite were on the ice for league action as the Hub hits its home stretch. It was the second to last full week of games in Tampa.
Here is the Northern Cyclones weekly recap for the week ending February 7th!
NCDC: NCDC had yet another back-and-forth week, skating to a 2-2-0 record in Hub City Tampa. They defeated the Twin City Thunder 4-2 on February 1st to open the .500 week. David Wilcox scored the eventual winning goal at 8:08 of the third period, while Brennan Dickey added an insurance marker at 12:42. Dickey’s tally was his first NCDC goal.
The next day, NCDC battled hard but ultimately dropped a tough 3-2 decision against the Rockets Hockey Club. Pavel Karasek and Massimo Pietroniro scored in the defeat, while Jed Baliotti made 31 saves.
The Cyclones returned to the win column on February 4th, edging the Connecticut Junior Rangers by a final score of 2-1. Chris Tamer opened the scoring at 4:11 of the hockey game, but the Rangers got even on an Andrei Levushkin tally at 14:52. Austin Rice, the Florida native who scored his first career goal earlier in Hub City Tampa, blasted home his 3rd of the season at 10:03 on the powerplay to give the Cyclones the win.
Eli Pilosof scored his first career NCDC goal and his first goal with the Cyclones on Sunday, but it wasn’t enough in a 5-3 loss to the Utica Junior Comets in Ellenton, Florida.
Premier: Premier only played twice on the week, and also found themselves at .500. The boys went 1-1-0 in Hub City Tampa, securing a victory over the Rangers on Tuesday before suffering a setback in Fort Myers on Super Sunday.
Kyle Myer turned aside 19 shots for a shutout victory on Tuesday at AdventHelath Center Ice. Josh Connor got things going with his 5th of the season at 6:00 of the first period. That was enough for the two points, but Premier didn’t stop there.
After being held off the board in the second period, Andrew Kozol, Michael Mulkerrin and Jackson Tillinghast all scored in the third period to cement the victory. The three goals came in a span of 4:09 that began at 1:04 and ended at 5:13 with Tillinghast’s powerplay goal.
Sunday wasn’t as good of a day. After a lengthy bus ride to Fort Myers to take on the Florida Eels, the Cyclones struggled to find their legs. Tristan Roost opened the scoring with his 23rd of the year 13:45 into the contest, and Florida never looked back.
Ben Peterson did score on the powerplay at 7:22 of the third period to cut the deficit to 2-1, but the Eels tacked on three goals in the final 12 minutes and took a 5-1 decision on home ice.
Elite: Elite played four games this past week, and ran the table with four victories in Hub City Tampa. It started with a back-to-back set on Tuesday and Thursday against the New York Aviators, a set in which the Cyclones offense exploded.
Marc Giordano scored a hat-trick in the opening game, which the Cyclones took by a commanding 7-0 score. In the rematch two days later, it was Marc L’Heureux who was the hero. L’Heureux scored 10:39 into the game to give the Cyclones a 3-1 lead, then polished off a feed from Cainan Stevenson in overtime to deliver the extra point. Luke Moore also had a pair of goals in the win, while Grady Fagan had the game’s first goal.
On Saturday, Elite erupted for five first period goals in a 7-4 victory over the Tampa Bay Juniors. Fagan, Matt Lajoie, Stevenson (2) and Storm Davis all found the back of the net to give the Cyclones a lead they would not lose. Tampa Bay did eventually cut it 5-4, but L’Heureux and Johnny Kemeny both scored in the final minutes to polish off the win.
Elite finished the week on Sunday down in Fort Myers. After the nearly two-and-a-half hour bus ride, the Cyclones found themselves trailing 1-0 thanks to a Vincent Cartier goal at 15:03 of the second period. Marc Giordano rifled home his 12th of the year with 51 seconds left in the frame to even things up, then Lajoie buried his 8th of the season just 18 seconds into the third to give the Cyclones the advantage.
Jack Boschert slammed the door shut from that point on, and Elite packed two points on the bus before heading back to Saddlebrook Resort.
