Cyclones Hockey learned a lot about itself last weekend, after splitting the series with Missouri State.

On Friday, the Cyclones narrowly defeated Missouri State 3-2. Saturday’s game saw Missouri State score four times and defeat Iowa State 4-2. The four goals were the most Iowa State has allowed this season.

Despite the series split, Iowa State’s coaches and players believe there was much to be proud of.

“It was a great series,” junior defenseman Adam Mueller said. “That’s what we want from these preseason-type games before we get into the ACHA [American Collegiate Hockey Association] season play. You want good competition and I thought we had the edge in all aspects of the series. I thought our players played well.”

Mueller said he thought this weekend’s series was a good indication of where the team can go.

“We played all right. We still have a long way to go,” Mueller said. “We’re a younger team and we still have a lot of time to put in before we start playing to our full potential. It’s a weekend to build off; obviously, we didn’t get the outcomes we wanted, but we can definitely see the light at the end of the tunnel.”

Sophomore forward Cort Bulloch also thought the team learned a lot about themselves from the series.

“We have a lot to build on,” Bulloch said. “Since it’s still early in the season, guys are still learning how to play together. I think these games are going to help us in the long run to motivate us.”

For some of the younger players on the team, a series split may seem upsetting, but junior defenseman Brent Cornelius said there is still much to remain optimistic about.  

“We have to keep our heads up,” Cornelius said. “It’s overcoming adversity. It’s not the end of the world. We’ll be all right, we’ll work hard in practice and we’ll get back at it next week.”

Despite a series split, coach Al Murdoch was still very happy with the play of the team but said there is much room for improvement, starting with scoring. “We had the opportunity to score more and we didn’t do it,” Murdoch said. “We also need to work on reading the goalie better and adjusting to the goalie.”

Penalties became a factor, specifically in Saturday’s game, when Iowa State found themselves penalized 10 times. Some may point the finger at the youth, but Cornelius said it can be traced back to discipline.

“There were definitely a lot of penalties,” Cornelius said. “We need to work on being smart. If they trip us or talk trash, we just need to learn to brush it off our shoulders.”

Murdoch said he was very happy with the way some of the younger players handled their first split of the season. He said this series was all part of the growing process for the team.

“They’ll grow from this series,” Murdoch said. “It is very important that [the players] keep their perspective. We’ll win as a team and we’ll lose as a team.”