News release
16 October 2009
Maxime Gratchev's two goals highlighted the Elmira Jackals celebration of "Ten Years in the Twin Tiers" Friday night as the Jackals defeated the Cincinnati Cyclones 5-2 at First Arena in front of a sellout crowd of 4,128 fans.
The 2009-2010 Jackals made a red carpet entrance at the annual Jackals Block Party, which began at 5 PM outside First Arena. It the first highlight of an evening filled with many for the Jackals.
The first of Gratchev's two goals came at 3:39 of the first period, as Gratchev beat Cyclones goaltender Robert Mayer for the Jackals first goal of the season on assists from Matt Lowry and Justin Donati.
Chanse Fitzpatrick's individual effort at 16:01 of the first period gave the Jackals the lead after Cincinnati's Matt Pierce had tied the game earlier, getting an initial shot on Mayer and then knocking home the rebound for the go-ahead goal.
The Jackals opened their lead at 36 seconds of the second period when Donati found Chaz Johnson on a two-on-one, with Johnson tapping in the one-timer past Mayer glove side for what proved to be the game-winning goal.
After Mike McLean brought the Cyclones back to within one at 4:59 of the second period, Gratchev scored his second goal of the game, sliding a puck through the pads of Mayer at 12:35 of the third period for the insurance goal. Brandon Svendsen padded the lead when he took a feed from Jackals captain Olivier Proulx for the 5-2 lead at 17:44 of the third period.
Michael-Lee Teslak starts the season off with a 1-0-0-0 record, making 21 saves on 23 Cincinnati shots. Mayer, making his first professional start, fell to 0-1-0-0, stopping 25 of 30 Jackals shots.
The Jackals play game two of their 72 game season on Saturday night at Reading, with the puck dropping at 7:05 at the Sovereign Center.
Jackals vs. Johnstown, Friday, October 23, 2009