The Cyclones played their first road games this weekend and showed that they can be just as successful on the road as they can at home.

Eastern Michigan gave the Cyclones a scare during Friday night’s game as the Eagles had a 1-goal lead going into the third period. The Cyclones would answer back and ultimately take the game when senior forward Mike Murtaugh connected with sophomore defenseman Brady Irwin to take a 4-3 lead with 43 seconds remaining.

Saturday’s game was not as close as the day before, when the Cyclones, led by senior forward Bill Adolph and junior forward Brian Spring beat the Eagles 10-4.

After splitting the past two series, this was the first sweep by the Cyclones since the St. Louis series the weekend of Oct. 11 and 12.

Irwin was more than happy with the outcome of the series and was happy to get back to sweeping the series.

“A sweep’s good, especially on the road and after splitting the last two weekends, when we should have won them,” Irwin said. “It’s good to get the 8-point weekend too, since this was a CSCHL [Central States Collegiate Hockey League] game, we’ll take the sweep any way we can get it, but it’s especially great to get it on the road.”

There was an added challenge to the series, as the Cyclones were forced to play on Olympic ice. Olympic ice is a rink larger than the normal NHL regulation rink and is the size of an Olympic rink. Because of the change, the Cyclones were forced to change a few things in their game plan, but Irwin said it did not really matter to the team.

“We changed our game plan a little, but overall, being physical and playing hard was all we had to do,” Irwin said. “It’s a little difficult to play on Olympic ice just because there’s more room to skate and we’re a physical team and we can’t be as physical since there is more room on the room.”

The Cyclones said they will look to the weekend as an indicator for what they need to work on for the upcoming series.

Coach Al Murdoch said it was clear the team can improve on the number of goals per game it is giving up.

“As a team, we’ve given up 37 goals against, in 14 games; that’s about 2.5 goals per game.” he said. “That’s higher than it needs to be. I think we’re a good enough team we can get it down to less than two goals per game — that’s about where some of the top teams in the nation are at right now.”

When asked what the team can do about the number of goals given up, Murdoch said that cutting down on mistakes and being smarter, as well as playing more physically will help cut down on the number of goals given up per game.

“Part of it is conditioning — I don’t believe our team is as well-conditioned. Another part is being physically and mentally strong — I don’t believe we are where we need to be with our physical and mental strength, either.”

Irwin said this past weekend was another good example of how important leadership and quality play from both older and younger players have factored into the team’s success.

“We have a lot of depth this year — we can basically change anyone on any line at any time,” Irwin said. “Everyone is stepping up and everyone is a leader in a different way; overall, that gives us balance and gives us what we need to compete with better teams.”