Last year, Erik Hudson posted six shutouts and a 2.36-goals-against average in leading the ISU charge to the championship game. Saturday, the ISU senior goaltender notched his first shutout of the young season.

Central Oklahoma scored early in the second period Friday to take a 3-1 lead. Hudson did not allow a goal after that in the weekend series, going almost five consecutive scoreless periods, leading the Cyclones to a sweep of the Bronchos.

“Hudson got into a groove,” said coach Al Murdoch. “Our goaltending was outstanding. He made hard saves look easy.”

The stellar play in the net kept Iowa State in the game Friday. Trailing 2-0 after one period and 3-1 in the second, Iowa State went on to score seven unanswered goals to coast to the opening day victory. The Cyclones kept up the offensive attack and the defensive prowess, shutting out the Bronchos 4-0 on Saturday.

Iowa State’s power play contributed heavily to the 11-goal streak.

“I can’t talk enough about our special teams right now,” Hudson said. “Our power play is working really well. A lot of young guys are stepping up for us.”

The young team produced a balanced scoring attack, led by freshman Jake Flynn’s three goals during the weekend. All in all, 10 different players scored during the two-game set.

“We have a lot of youthful enthusiasm,” Murdoch said. “I like the balanced scoring; that’s what we’re looking for.”

The young Cyclones are also fast, winning battles to the puck and beating defenders one-on-one. Murdoch knows his teams seldom lose in the third period of games, as conditioning is stressed in practice.

“No question about it, we’ll work on additional conditioning,” Murdoch said. “We started to feel the difference that one full week of practice can make with good, quality players. It’s starting to show.”

Murdoch recruited heavily in the offseason, and half the team is comprised of freshmen. One of the players he picked up is the aforementioned Flynn, who filled the stat sheet this weekend.

Flynn said he is playing well to prove that Murdoch made the right decision to choose him.

“It feels good,” Flynn said. “Obviously, you know, he put a lot of trust in me. I’m just trying to hold up my end of the deal.”

Flynn was a part of a Cyclone squad that looked crisper than last weekend.

Friday’s game showed how resilient the Cyclones can be, coming back from two goals down to win easily and firing up the home crowd. The Bronchos had a few legitimate scoring opportunities Saturday, as control for most of the game was held by Iowa State.

“We’re a lot better conditioned,” said forward Mike Lebler. “We skated pretty hard this week, and it showed out there. We didn’t quit at all and got stronger as the game went on.”

Senior Cort Bulloch, who scored in Saturday’s contest, also noticed the conditioning of the team, but knows that work is far from finished.

“We’ve got to sharpen up the passes a little bit and make sure we keep working on our systems,” Bulloch said. “We’ve got to get stronger.”

The Cyclones will look to build on this week’s series win as they face Oklahoma for Family Weekend. The Sooners have a dynamic power play of their own.

Bulloch knows what is ahead.

“We’re going to be working on our penalty kill,” Bulloch said. “We’ll be working on actually not taking too many penalties to prevent them from going on the power play. They have a savvy, veteran team, but I think we have everything we need to come out on top.”

The first game of the series is at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 1 at the Ames/ISU Ice Arena.