Coming into last weekend’s series against No. 2 Illinois, Iowa State was 2–4 against ranked opponents. After a split with the Fighting Illini, the Cyclones are confident about their solid play.

On Friday, the Cyclones came out strong in the first period with a goal by sophomore forward Jason Pacheco near the end of the first period.

The second period would prove to be the difference, though. Five minutes into the period, the Illini found the back of the net on a power play to tie the game. Less than two minutes later, Illinois got another puck past ISU goalie Paul Karus. Near the end of the period, Illinois connected on another power-play goal to bring the score to 3–1.

This was not the first time this season the Cyclones were down 3–1 at the end of the period. Iowa State had the same deficit against Oklahoma and came back to win in overtime.

Forty seconds into the third period, Brent Cornelius scored a power-play goal to bring the Cyclones within one. After the goal, Illinois tightened its defense, holding on to the win.

“That goal [by Cornelius] was huge,” Pacheco said. “It got our team fired up for the whole period, but we got a couple bad breaks and a couple good shots on net. We just couldn’t finish them.”

Although Iowa State lost, coach Al Murdoch was still pleased with the team’s performance.

“Give Illinois all the credit in the world,” Murdoch said. “They had a good game plan and they adjusted their game plan enough to shut us down.”

Saturday turned out to be a different story for the Cyclones.

Realizing they could play with Illinois, the Cyclones came out in the first period a determined team. Both teams played hard, and both goalies were stopping everything that came their way. With five seconds to play in the period, Brody Toigo scored on a slap shot from the blue line to give the Cyclones some momentum.

The Cyclones used that momentum to their advantage in the second period. The defense tightened up and only gave Illinois six shots on goal, all of which were stopped by ISU goalie Erik Hudson.

Two minutes into the period, Iowa State added a goal from Cody Steele to make the score 2–0. Two minutes later, Peter Majkozak scored on a breakaway to push the lead to three goals.

Cort Bulloch put the Cyclones ahead 4–0 in the third period with a breakaway goal of his own, and it was all the team needed to put away Illinois.

Hudson’s play in net was the story of the game, as he played a near-perfect game, allowing a only one late goal on a power play. He finished the game stopping 27-of-28 shots.

“Hudson really stood on his head tonight and really played well,” Toigo said. “He practices hard all week and it really helped us out a lot tonight.”

For the Cyclones, it was their first win in the Central States League and their third win over a ranked opponent this year.

“I thought we outplayed Illinois both nights,” Murdoch said. “I would’ve liked to get the sweep, but we’ll take the split.”