After its third sweep of the season, the Iowa State hockey team is looking as sharp as it has in a while.

“I don’t think we’ve been 6–0 the past three years I’ve been here,” said senior captain Brent Cornelius. “Every year we’ve played about the same caliber of teams at the beginning of the year and we’ve always seemed to let up one game.”

That is not the case this season. In each of its first six games the Cyclone offense has been putting up impressive numbers.

Iowa State added 14 more goals this weekend to bring its total for six games to 54.

The offense is not the only thing that is winning games for the Cyclones, as they have a solid defense as well.

“We’ve been working a lot on our defensive systems,” said junior forward Cort Bulloch. “We’re getting to the point where teams are getting better as we go, so we have to keep up.”

The Cyclones’ potent offense can partly be attributed to its defense.

“A good, solid defense helps move the puck up to the forwards,” Bulloch said. “It allows you not to focus so much on the forwards getting back to help the defense and we have a solid defense back there to move the puck.”

Each game, Iowa State has allowed no more than two goals and has only given up eight total.

“I am real pleased with the development of the defensemen and the goaltenders,” said coach Al Murdoch.

The Cyclones went with two goalies on two different nights this past weekend against Indiana.

In the previous games, each of the three goalies had two periods of work each series.

“I wanted to give each one 60 minutes each this weekend,” Murdoch said. “I wish we could’ve played three games so they all could’ve gotten 60 minutes.”

Erik Hudson played in Friday’s game and saved 28-of-30 shots, while Paul Karus played Saturday night and saved 20-of-21 shots.

Three shorthanded goals on Friday night provided an extra boost for the Cyclone offense and they added one more on Saturday night.

“Shorthanded goals are huge,” Bulloch said. “They can really demoralize the other team. It gets our bench going, our team going and the crowd going.”

“We have to continue to play well on power plays and penalty killing situations,” Murdoch said. “Special teams are so important to the game of hockey.”

Throughout both games, the Cyclones were a highly physical team, which countered the less physical style of the opponents.

“They were kind of off and on,” Cornelius said when talking about Indiana’s physicality. “It was like the first two periods they didn’t seem like they were there and the third period they showed up.”

The Cyclones closed out their home stand exactly the way they wanted to with six wins in six games.

“It feels real good,” Murdoch said. “I’m real proud of the guys. We’re right on schedule, where we’d like to be.”