Winter Break is over and the ISU hockey team is back in action. Last Friday and Saturday, the Cyclones split in a two-game set with Indiana, winning Friday 3-2 and losing 5-4 Saturday in a shootout.

Coach Al Murdoch has been impressed lately with the play of his captain, forward Brian Rooney, and assistant captain, defenseman Brody Toigo.

Toigo, who had sat out last season and the first 25 games of this season, has made an immediate impact since his return to the lineup on Dec. 9. In his first four games back, he has five points, including a game-winning goal against Indiana and has a team-high 1.25 points per game average.

“It felt good. You never know when you come back if you quite have everything you had when you left, because I was gone for so long,” Toigo said. “I was a little hesitant to take a hit at first, but as soon as I took that first hit, nothing felt out of place at all — or felt wrong at all — so I felt pretty comfortable after that.”

On the offensive side of the ice, Murdoch has seen a spark in the play of Rooney and described him as “playing possessed,” something that he sees from a lot of seniors.

“When you get to be a senior, you start to see the light at the end of the tunnel,” Murdoch said. “Then you have an event like Marcus Andary [passing away] and you don’t know how much there is left, so you might as well play like it’s the last game, last shift.”

Rooney, as far as eligibility goes, is the only senior.

“The lion is always strongest when it fears the end,” Rooney said. “This is my last semester. I want to play as long as I can here, and maybe make a run at a national championship.”

Murdoch said that he wants the rest of the team to step up just like Rooney and Toigo have.

“If the other guys play at that level, like Rooney and Toigo, we’ll win the national championship,” Murdoch said.

The next set of games for the Cyclones is this Friday and Saturday night against Kent State at the Ames/ISU Ice Arena.