51 shots, four unanswered goals lead Evansville to thrilling win late
1st Period: 1. CIN – Yogan 5 (Budish, 1:45)
2nd Period: 2. CIN – Hammond 2 (Quenneville, Lauwers, 1:29); 3. EVN – Zay 5 (Moon, Trebish, 12:42); 4. EVN – Leveille 15 (MacDonald, 18:58)
3rd Period: 5. EVN – Sims 6 (Moon, Rumble, 18:54); 6. EVN – Duco 2 (EN, Anthoine, 19:40)
The Evansville IceMen peppered the Cincinnati Cyclones with 51 shots and scored four unanswered goals Saturday in a 4-2 come-from-behind win at the Ford Center
Cincinnati jumped out to an early lead when Andrew Yogan  sent a wrist shot through a screen past the glove of IceMen goaltender Matt Zenzola 1:45 into the game. Evansville outshot the Cyclones 16-6 in the opening frame, but Neil Conway kept the IceMen off the board.
The Cyclones added to their lead in the first two minutes of the second period, when Mike Hammond backhanded a bouncing puck under the crossbar to make it 2-0. Evansville cut the lead in half at 12:42, when Matthew Zay finished off a long offensive zone shift with a backhander from the slot.
Then during a 4-on-4 situation late in the period, Justin MacDonald flipped a puck out to center ice and Daultan Leveille carried it in on a breakaway. Leveille beat Conway between the legs with a backhander to tie the game with 1:02 left to even the score 2-2 heading into the third.
Evansville generated 21 third period shots, its most in any period all season, and eventually capitalized. When Nathan Moon’s shot from the left wing wall was kicked out, Jordan Sims buried the rebound past Conway with 1:06 left in regulation to give the IceMen their first lead. It was Sims’ third game-winning goal of the season, and Moon’s second assist of the night.
Mike Duco added an empty net goal with 20 seconds to play. Zenzola stopped 17 shots in his second career win, while Conway made 47 saves in the loss. The 51 shots were the most Evansville has put up in a single game this season.
The win starts a stretch of five games in eight days for the IceMen, who travel to Moline, IL Wednesday for a meeting with the Quad City Mallards at 6:35pm. Evansville then hosts the Mallards Thursday for the New Years Eve bash at the Ford Center, beginning at 7:15pm. There will be a postgame fireworks show indoors after the game to ring in 2016.
The IceMen then host Missouri Saturday, January 2 at 7:15pm and Wichita Sunday, January 3 at 5:15pm to wrap up four games in five days.
