FISHERS- The Indy Fuel hosted the Cincinnati Cyclones bright and early on Tuesday morning for their annual Education Day game. In a high-scoring, back-and-forth thriller in front of a sold out crowd of 6,726 local students and teachers, it was the Cyclones who came out victorious 7-5.

1ST PERIOD

Recorded at just 10:32 am, Kyler Kupka scored the first goal of the game just 1:13 into this Education Day matchup. Harrison Israels had the goal’s only assist. 

Cincinnati answered back at 6:50 when Ryan Kirwan scored. Former Fuel forward, Sahil Panwar had the primary assist on that goal. 

About a minute later, Simon Labelle scored his first professional goal with the help of Kirwan and Liam Kidney. This gave the Cyclones an early 2-1 lead. 

Anthony Petruzzelli took the game’s first penalty. He sat for interference at 8:31. 

At 14:05, Indy’s Chase Dafoe took a hooking penalty. The Fuel were only on the penalty kill for 1:04 before Cincinnati’s Kirwan sat for slashing, however just nine seconds after that, Israels joined Dafoe in the penalty box for hooking.

All penalties were killed off with about two and a half minutes left in the first period. 

Jacob Perreault tied the game up, 2-2 just a few seconds later. Mitchell Hoelscher and Lachlan Getz claimed the assists on that goal.

At 18:06, Matt Anderson was called for interference. This put the Fuel on the power play, however their next goal came via penalty shot. Mitchell Hoelscher scored at 18:29 on Timofei Obvintsev to give Indy a 3-2 lead. 

Cincinnati’s Kidney took a tripping penalty at 19:22 that would carry over to the second period as they did not score before time expired in the period. 

After one busy frame of hockey, Indy was outshooting the Cyclones, 10-9.

2ND PERIOD

At 7:16, Ross Mitton scored for the Cyclones to make it 3-3. 

Cincinnati’s Matt Hellickson took a tripping penalty at 10:34. Perreault capitalized on the power play with his second goal of the game to take a 4-3 lead. 

About three minutes later, Cincy tied it up again when Anderson scored to make it 4-4. 

Panwar scored at 17:44 to give the Cyclones a 5-4 lead. He then took a cross checking penalty at 19:47 that would eventually be killed off.

Neither team scored again in the second period, however immediately after the period ended, multiple fights broke out in front of Indy’s net. Lane Brockhoff and Cincy’s Kidney each earned five minutes for fighting. 

After two periods, Indy outshot Cincinnati 18-17.

3RD PERIOD

Cincinnati extended their lead to 6-4 at 2:05 when Kirwan scored his second of the game. Labelle and Panwar had the assists. Together, they combined for eight points at that point in the game. 

At 3:34, Kupka took a tripping penalty that put the Cyclones back on the power play, however the Fuel were able to kill it off quickly. 

The Fuel took a too many men penalty at 12:04, that was served by Josh Nixon. Cincinnati’s Ben Meehan headed to the box at 12:41, forcing over a minute of 4-on-4 before the Fuel earned about forty seconds on the power play. All penalties were killed. 

With 1:29 left, Indy called a timeout and pulled Gajan from goal in favor of the extra skater. It paid off when Cody Laskosky scored with 33.3 seconds remaining to bring the score to 6-5. 

Mitton added his second goal of the game on the empty net to make it 7-5 in favor of the Cyclones just twelve seconds before time expired. 

Cincinnati outshot the Fuel 12-9 in the third period and 29-26 overall.

ABOUT THE INDY FUEL:

The Indy Fuel are the proud ECHL affiliate of the National Hockey League’s Chicago Blackhawks and the American Hockey League’s Rockford IceHogs. The Fuel have returned to Fishers Event Center for their 13th season. Information and tickets can be found HERE.

Don’t forget to follow the Fuel on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, and YouTube for news, updates, contests, and much more.

--INDYFUELHOCKEY.COM--