Cyclone Hockey’s offense flexed its muscles with back-to-back blowouts on Sept. 26 and 27 against HC Harbin from China at the Ames/ISU Ice Arena.

The No. 5 ranked Cyclones (5-1, 1-1 ACHA) out-shot its opponents 118 to 28 through two games and kept the HC Harbin defense off-balance the entire weekend on their way to 8-0 and 11-1 victories. 

In the first game, the Cyclones came out strong as they put 22 shots on net in the first period. Thanks to HC Harbin goaltender Liu Zhi Wei stopping 21 of those shots, HC Harbin only went down 1-0.

The second period started out quite similarly to the first, but this time Wei couldn’t stop as many of the pucks from going in the net. The Cyclones put 22 more shots on net and three of them got by Wei. Iowa State would complete the lopsided shutout in the third period, tacking on four more goals.

Scott Antonsen picked up a goal and an assist and Antti Helanto had two assists, while Zack Johnson also had a goal and an assist.

Although the Cyclones picked up a big victory, head coach Jason Fairman would have liked to see some parts of the game go differently.

“We scored eight goals, so that’s always good, but in that first period we had a lot of point-blank chances and didn’t score,” Fairman said. “That concerns me because it has been a problem ever since I became the head coach. We don’t score a lot of goals.”

The second game started off the same for Iowa State, out shooting HC Harbin 19-5 and taking a 1-0 lead early in the first period. However, HC Harbin kept the game level after Ji Peng danced around the Cyclone defenders on his way to scoring the only goal for Harbin on the weekend.

In the second period, Iowa State exploded, putting four goals in the net and taking a 5-1 lead. The Cyclones didn’t let up in the third period, scoring six goals en route to another lopsided victory.

Johnson had a hat trick and then some, scoring four goals on the night. Johnson had five goals and two assists in total over the two games against Harbin.

“Having a night like this definitely doesn’t happen very often, if at all,” Johnson said. “It’s a luck thing for sure, being in the right place at the right time. I have to thank the other guys on the ice for sure for feeding me the puck.”

Alex Grose also took advantage of the offensive showing while also picking up a hat trick in the game.

“It was fun to have a night like that. We played our systems well and [I] owe it to the guys with me [Alex] Grupe and [Austin] Parle to help me put the puck in the net,” Grose said.

After picking up two blowout victories, Iowa State takes on Oklahoma and Central Oklahoma on the road Oct. 3-5. Fairman is worried that the large marginal wins might affect players’ game going into the important road trip.

“It is important for guys to get confident and finish a lot of goals,” Fairman said. “But we got a little away from our systems and more individual than we did [Sept. 26] so I’m a little worried about that. I don’t want to have to fix any bad habits the players might have picked up. It’s like anything in life we picked up some bad habits and now we have to fix them early.”