Riding a five-game winning streak, the Cyclones made it all the way to the end of the CSCHL tournament, only to lose to the host team, Ohio, on Sunday.

The No. 12 ISU hockey team beat No. 5 Robert Morris (Ill.) in the first round of the CSCHL tournament on Friday, No. 7 Illinois on Saturday, but couldn’t finish the job in the championship game against No. 4 Ohio. The Bobcats (26-7-3) beat the Cyclones (22-16-3) 4-0 at Bird Arena in Athens, Ohio, on Sunday.

This was the first time the Cyclones have made it to the CSCHL championship game since the 2008-09 season, where they also lost to Ohio, that time in Champaign, Ill. The Cyclones have not won the CSCHL tournament championship since the 2006-07 season, while the Bobcats have won two of the last three.

The Cyclones had penalty trouble throughout the game with 24 penalty minutes compared to the Bobcats, who only had 6. ISU defenseman Justin Wilkinson had 12 penalty minutes in the game.

ISU goalie Matt Cooper stopped 26-of-29 OU shots and suffered his first loss of the season. He is 8-1 this season and has a .956 save percentage this season.

An OU forward got the scoring started for the Bobcats with 3:10 left in the first period off of a pass from Nathan De La Torre to give them the 1-0 lead. Cooper stopped 10-of-11 OU shots in the first period.

James Howard extended the Bobcats’ lead to two with a goal off of a rebound from a shot by Nicholas Hudeck with 11:15 remaining in the second period. The Bobcats outshot the Cyclones 22-19 through 2 periods.

With 11:23 left in the game, OU forward Michael Harris scored a power play goal to give the Bobcats a 3-0 lead. ISU coach Al Murdoch pulled Cooper for the extra attacker with 2:11 left in the game, but Jonathan Pietramala scored on the empty net less than a minute later to put the Bobcats up by four en route to winning the CSCHL tournament championship 1:28 later.

Looking ahead, the Cyclones have one more home series against North Dakota State this weekend before playing No. 5 Robert Morris in the second round of the ACHA national tournament on March 2.