Cyclone Hockey continued its winning ways this past weekend, sweeping 11th-ranked Ohio in two games.

On Friday, Iowa State’s junior forward Derek Behrman scored twice and led the Cyclones to a 4-2 victory. Saturday’s game saw five different Cyclone players score goals en route to a 5-2 victory and the series sweep.

For Iowa State, those were the fifth- and sixth-straight victories since dropping two games at Oklahoma a few weekends ago. Junior forward Pete Majkozak said he believes the team’s resiliency and confidence to put the losses behind it and win six straight says a lot about the team’s character.

“We don’t get down if we lose. We play every game like it’s just one game, because we haven’t really thought of a winning streak yet, so we just take every game as a new battle,” Majkozak said.

The team’s success this past weekend could be in large part because of stellar defense and goaltending. Ohio entered the weekend with an average of five goals per game. Iowa State was able to hold the Bulldogs’ offense in check, allowing just two goals both nights.

Sophomore goalie Eric Hudson started at goalie both nights and said the weekend’s two victories were a result of the team’s morale and will to succeed.

“[This past weekend] was huge, not only in the standings in our league but also in the national standings,” he said. “Most importantly, though, for our team’s morale, we’re coming together as a group. We’re really looking strong toward the end now. Going down the stretch run, if we’re playing like this, not many teams are going to beat us.”

The Cyclones won their 20th and 21st games for the season over the weekend, a feat that coach Al Murdoch said has been somewhat of a rarity for the team.

“I can count on one hand the number of times we’ve won 20 games prior to Christmas — this is one of those years,” Murdoch said.

By winning their 20th game before the winter break, Iowa State has joined elite company by being one of only three teams that have done so this season, the others being Lindenwood University and Robert Morris University.

After Saturday’s victory, Majkozak talked about the importance of finishing off the first half of the season on the right note and how winning the last couple of series before the break will be a focal point and could reflect how the rest of the season plays out for the team.

“[This series] was big because it was our conference,” Majkozak said. “Something we really stress is winning each week, because the conference title and league championship is our goal, and this weekend we showed consistency. It was pretty key.”

Despite finding itself on the positive end of the latest winning streak, Iowa State knows to remain successful and continue to push toward the ultimate goal of a national championship, there are some areas the team would like to focus on improving. Hudson pointed out one area in particular he thought the team did well in this weekend’s series but would still like to see improve on for the rest of the season.

“Our discipline. We take penalties sometimes that are a bit unnecessary but we can’t always be perfect in that aspect,” Hudson said. “[On Saturday] I thought we played solid, we really battled. We didn’t let up in the third period, we took it to them, so as of right now, it’s just discipline we need to work on.”

Despite winter break approaching quickly and the first half of the season coming to a close, the Cyclones don’t appear to be feeling too much pressure to close out the first half of the season on a high note.

“I think we have more pressure to make the playoffs. Right now, we’re just trying to get consistency and get 25 guys working as one,” Majkozak said.