After falling short of winning the Central States Collegiate Hockey League regular-season title, the Cyclone hockey team looked for redemption in the form of a CSCHL tournament championship, but they fell just one win short again.

The No. 2-seeded Cyclones opened the tournament facing off against seventh-seeded Eastern Michigan. Iowa State kicked off the scoring with a goal from senior forward Bill Adolph with 5:11 remaining. After Eastern Michigan scored with 36 seconds remaining, the game remained tied through the second period and into the third. Senior forward Mike Murtaugh broke the tie with 16:37 remaining on a power-play goal. The Cyclones got an insurance goal from sophomore forward Chris Mackay with 2:27 left in the third period and would go on to win the game 3-1.

In a rematch from last week’s series, Iowa State squared off against third-seeded Illinois. After having a rough time finding the net against Illinois last week, Iowa State quickly erased those memories and scored three first-period goals against Illinois. Forwards Brian Spring, Derek Behrman and Mike Lebler all scored goals, catapulting Iowa State to a 3-1 lead. Despite Illinois scoring two more second-period goals, Iowa State refused to slow down, scoring three more goals of its own in the second period. Adolph and Spring scored a goal each in the period, while Murtaugh connected with a power-play goal to close out the period and give Iowa State a 6-3 lead, which would ultimately be the final score.

Iowa State advanced to the championship game against the fourth-seeded Cinderella team of the tournament, Ohio. The Bobcats were able to get past No. 5 Kent State and were able to send the number-one seed of the tournament, Lindenwood, home early. The game was tied 1-1 going into the second period when Murtaugh once again came through, scoring a goal for Iowa State. Freshman forward Brian Rooney would give Iowa State a seemingly comfortable 3-1 lead heading into the final period.

But the comfortable lead would not last.

Ohio scored two goals to tie up the game. The goals came in a very short time frame and shifted the momentum back in Ohio’s favor. Ohio’s fourth and final goal would ultimately be the deciding goal that would lead Ohio to a CSCHL Tournament championship, its first since 2005.

The Cyclones did finish as the runner-up in the tournament and will look to get back on track when they host North Dakota State on Friday for their final home game of the season.