After losing its previous three games against No. 2 Arizona State and the North Iowa Bulls of the NA3HL, the No. 11 ISU hockey team was trying to bounce back against No. 7 Robert Morris at home.

The Cyclones (7-4-1) won Friday by a score of 3-1, but the Eagles (9-1-1) bounced back Saturday 6-3 to even the two-game series.

ISU goaltender Scott Ismond played both games against the Eagles, stopping 34-of-35 shots in Friday’s game. The only Robert Morris goal came off a turnover in the offensive zone that gave the Eagles an odd-man advantage right in front of Ismond.

“At first I think I might have been over-thinking it a little bit, there was the first shot that was kind of bobbled a little bit but after that I got into a nice little rhythm and was able to just turn stuff away,” Ismond said.

So far this season, Ismond has been playing the Saturday games after Karus played the Friday game. But Ismond said there isn’t much difference in playing the first game.

“The only difference is that you can’t start your rituals at 10 a.m., you’ve got to start them at one o’clock in the afternoon after class,” Ismond said. “It’s just a matter of preparing for the game.”

In Saturday’s game, Ismond only stopped 33-of-39 Robert Morris shots.

The Cyclones played close to the Eagles for most of Friday’s game with just a one-goal lead after ISU junior forward Jon Feavel scored the first goal of the game 14:07 into the first period.

The game was scoreless after that until 7:41 into the third period when ISU sophomore forward James Buttermore extended the lead to two. Just 1:37 later Buttermore scored again to give the Cyclones a 3-0 lead.

“It felt really good to get ahead by two goals and give us that cushion,” Buttermore said. “Our line kind of started out slow, but we came out in the third period and never gave up and kept our confidence up so it worked out for us.”

Buttermore also had an assist in Saturday’s loss. He now has 12 points (four goals, eight assists) in 10 games played this season. He ranks third on the team.

Buttermore’s line with Derek Kohles and David Kurbatsky, who just returned from an injury played against the Eagles’ top line all game and held their top scorer Gehrett Sargis to just one assist in the third period.

“We were able to change our system to adapt and be able to control that situation and then force him to where he can’t get a quality shot from the outside,” Kurbatsky said.

Sargis went into Saturday’s game and had one goal and one assist in Robert Morris’s 6-3 victory over the Cyclones.