The Cincinnati Cyclones play at home for the first time this ECHL season on Saturday night, hosting the Bloomington Bison at 7:05 p.m. at Heritage Bank Center in Cincinnati in the team’s First Face-Off game. Cincinnati is 1-0-0 after an opening win on the road, while Bloomington arrives unbeaten at 2-0-0.
The Cyclones opened with a 4-3 win at Indy, led by Sahil Panwar, who recorded three points on a goal and two assists. Cincinnati went 1-for-5 on the power play in that game, a number the team will look to improve in front of its home crowd on Saturday.
Bloomington presents an early test. The Bison beat Fort Wayne 4-1 on Friday night, a game in which Yu Chan Kong scored his first professional goal. Bloomington has scored four of its nine goals in the second period this season, so the middle frame — often Cincinnati’s strongest at home — shapes up as the decisive stretch.
Heritage Bank Center ticket options for First Face-Off start at $23.71 for individual seats, with front-row seats, a Skyline Chili family four-pack and six-pack vouchers also listed by the team. Prices increase on game day, the Cyclones note, so Saturday arrivals can expect a busy downtown riverfront before puck drop.
The matchup is the first of several meetings between the clubs in the season’s opening weeks. Bloomington returns to Cincinnati on November 7, and the Cyclones visit Bloomington on November 14 for the Bison’s teacher appreciation night, giving both teams an early read on a divisional opponent they will see often.
For Cincinnati, a home-opening win would keep the Cyclones perfect through two games and set an early tone at Heritage Bank Center, where the club’s loud crowds have long been part of the ECHL’s best home atmospheres. Bloomington, at 2-0-0, is trying to spoil the opener and extend the league’s early unbeaten runs.
Puck drop is 7:05 p.m. Saturday. Fans who cannot make it downtown can follow the ECHL’s live coverage, and the Cyclones return home again on November 7 against the same Bloomington team to complete the early home-and-home stretch.
Photo: Mhuy222, CC BY