Overtime games have been a struggle for the Cyclones this season, but the American Collegiate Hockey Association Tournament seems to have brought out the best of the whole team.

Entering the tournament, the Cyclones were 1–4 in games that went into overtime, but those four loses all came in shootouts. Luckily, the tournament’s overtime rules do not include a shootout after five minutes of overtime; just 20 minutes of five on five sudden death.

“We haven’t really struggled in overtime all that much this season as shootouts, so it helps that we just play five on five and not a lot of teams can beat us five on five,” said freshman forward Derek Kohles.

On Saturday, Iowa State outlasted Kent State in a game where the Cyclones held a lead, lost it, came back to tie the game and eventually lead, then Kent State tied the game with less than a minute to play in regulation.

In overtime, the Cyclones nearly took themselves out by committing an early penalty, but all was erased when senior forward Brad Krueger scored a shorthanded goal to win the game.

Sunday went very much the same for the Cyclones. Iowa State scored two goals in the first period within three minutes of each other, but Illinois answered with a goal of its own getting the puck past Iowa State goalie Erik Hudson with six minutes to play in the first period.

The Cyclones held the 2–1 lead until halfway through the second period, when Illinois got the puck around Hudson again. The two teams went scoreless in the third period, which set up another overtime challenge for the Cyclones.

Iowa State wasted no time in the overtime period. Kohles managed to get the puck by Illinois goalie Mike Burda 39 seconds into the period, sending the Cyclones to the semi-finals to play Ohio University.

In the first two games, the Iowa State upperclassmen stepped up. Pete Majkozak has scored two goals in the tournament, including the game-tying goal with six minutes to play in Saturday’s match against Kent State. Krueger, who was at the top of the list of goal scorers for the Cyclones, got the game-winning goal on Saturday.

“All our guys are playing with a lot of passion and heart,” said coach Al Murdoch. “All the seniors are playing each game like it’s their last and each one very well could be.”

Murdoch was also impressed with the play of Hudson. Hudson had 25 saves out of 31 shots on Saturday to go along with 27 saves out of 29 shots on Sunday.

“Those six goals on Saturday were very good shots that even the best goal tenders would have had a lot of difficulty stopping,” Murdoch said.

Due to Hudson and the play of the defense, the Cyclones are now only two games away from winning their first title since the 1991–’92 season and a win on Tuesday would guarantee at least the runner-up, which they have only earned twice.

“It’s been a while since we were last in the final four and it feels good to be back,” Murdoch said. “Now we just want to be in the top two and eventually be the number one.”

Iowa State will face off with Central States Collegiate League opponent, Ohio, on Tuesday at 8 p.m. In three games this season, the Bobcats have gotten the best of the Cyclones, all in close games.

“Almost everybody on the team really wants to end their season,” Kohles said. “We feel like we need to pay them back for the last three times and where better to do it than in the National Tournament.”