The Oklahoma Sooners swept the Cyclones when the two teams met earlier this year. That was something the Sooners didn’t forget as they struck first, taking a 1-0 lead just 1:19 after the puck dropped Friday night.

Iowa State showed they wouldn’t back down easily either when junior defenseman Brent “Corndog” Cornelius dumped the puck in front of the net for sophomore forward Mike Lebler, who quickly deposited it in the back of the net, evening the score at 1-1. Oklahoma countered again, however, as defenseman Shawn Hayden rocketed a shot from the blue line that deflected off an ISU player and into the back of the net, giving the Sooners  2-1 lead with just under six minutes to play in the opening period and that is how the opening period would finish.

In the second period, ISU came out of the gates quickly and put the pressure on the Sooners 3:30 into the period, Lebler came to the rescue again, senior Mike Murtaugh’s pass was a little long for Lebler, but he caught up to it and slid it past Sooners goaltender Chad Helgason from his knees.  The goal evened the scored once again at 2-2.

“It’s a little frustrating when they get fluky goals like that, off of guys shin pads and stuff, we just go to shake it off and make sure we play our game,” Lebler said.

With twelve minutes remaining in the second period, junior forward Brian Spring put in his team-leading twenty-seventh goal of the season when junior forward Pete Majkozak stole the puck and sped up ice finding line-mate Brad Krueger who then left it for Spring to finish the play. 

The Sooners quickly responded with an unassisted goal by defenseman Austin Miller, but the Cyclones didn’t stop there as senior forward Mike Murtaugh countered yet again with a goal of his own with the assistance of sophomore defenseman Brady Irwin, putting the Cyclones up 4-3 with nine minutes remaining in the second period.

With 5:30 remaining in the second period, tensions escalated in front of the Sooners’ net when separate scuffles broke out involving Krueger and Spring, putting three men in the penalty box for the Sooners, giving the Cyclones a three on five advantage. Junior forward Derek Behrman got sent to the box less than a minute later for crosschecking, making the man advantage 4-3. 

The penalty party continued when Sooners forward Justin King got sent to the box for a crosschecking penalty of his own.  Sooner defenseman Trevor Hallberg became the next inhabitant of the penalty box for tripping, putting the Cyclones back at a 5-3 man advantage, which they wasted no time taking advantage of. 

Majkozak found freshman defenseman Brody Toigo who showed off his beautiful slapshot from just in front of the blue line, ringing it off the post and in to push the Cyclone lead to 5-3.  Tensions continued to escalate between the two teams as the third period ended, particularly between Majkozak and Sooner forward Sean McCauley who could be seen verbally sparring as they headed to the locker room.  Freshman forward Brian Rooney also picked up a game misconduct penalty as he went into the locker room.

The Sooners finished with eleven penalties to the Cyclones five.

The difference in penalties came down to the poise of the younger players on the team.

“There’s a lot of young guys here so we were just telling them to not retaliate, just to let them take the penalty and bury one.  I know we got two goals out of the eleven power plays so hopefully we can capatalize a little better on that tomorrow if it happens,” Cornelius said.

The crazy second period set the stage for an exciting finish. 

Oklahoma wouldn’t go away getting the first goal of the third period by forward Wil Petty, cutting the Cyclone lead to 5-4.  The Sooners evened the score yet again at 5-5 with just over nine minutes remaining in the game on a goal by forward Kyle Allan. 

Iowa State kept fighting, however, as Spring put in his second goal of the game and his twenty-eighth of the season, putting the Cyclones up 6-5 with five minutes remaining in the game.  The Sooners just kept slugging back in this contest of increasingly bitter rivals as forward Doug Gebbie’s goal tied the score at 6-6 with three minutes remaining in the game.

Head Coach Al Murdoch talked about the irregular amount of goals allowed being both team defense and goaltending.

“I think it’s a combination anytime the puck goes in on our end, it’s team defense and goaltending,” Murdoch said.  “That’s forwards back-checking, defenders playing the body, and goaltenders stopping that black thing that comes at them and we weren’t doing that as well as we needed to tonight. We have to go back to the drawing board.”

The Cyclones were unable to punch back before regulation ended and the shootout continued into the five-minute overtime period.

In the overtime period neither team scored but Oklahoma’s Blake Johnson was penalized two minutes for hooking then was tossed from the game upon throwing his stick in the penalty box then proceeded to take his frustrations out on the ISU box attendant.

The game went to a shootout where the Sooners quickly went up 2-0 after Spring missed the first Cyclone attempt but Lebler brought the score back to 2-1 giving the Cyclones life.  Oklahoma quickly ended it though on the next shot, wining it 3-1 and improving their record to 3-0 against the Cyclones, all three wins decided by one goal.  The loss also broke the Cyclones six game win streak.

Murdoch talked about the team falling short despite out-shooting them by a ratio of 2-1.

“We need to re-group and start putting the puck in the net; when we have as many shots on goal as we did, we need to have more going in the net,” Murdoch said.