Before the series began, Cyclone Hockey coach Al Murdoch warned that Minot State would be a tough opponent. This weekend’s games did nothing to change his mind.

Cyclone Hockey swept Minot State in a pair of close games over the weekend at the Ames/ISU Ice Arena, 4-3 in overtime on Friday and 6-4 on Saturday.

Minot State gave the Cyclones all they could handle on Friday when they tried to hold on to a 3-2 lead in the third period. Junior forward Bill Adolph tied the game up late in the third period on a shorthanded goal before sophomore forward Brian Spring put it away with a tough overtime goal.

“It was great,” Spring said. “It was the third overtime and third time’s the charm this year. It was right off the face-off; I was just hoping to get through and get lucky, and it worked out perfectly… We haven’t been winning a lot of close games lately, or all year even, so it’s nice to get a close win, and a hard-fought win.”

The second game was highlighted by Adolph’s hat trick, scoring a goal in each period.

Even though the Cyclones got two wins, they still felt Minot State was a quality program.

“Minot State was one of the better teams we played this year,” Murdoch said.

“They probably should be in the top 16 in the country at Nationals. I think our goaltending was just slightly better then theirs; they had good goaltending but we had better. I think our defense was just slightly better than theirs, and our depth was very good. I felt good on Saturday with three guys gone for the all-star game. We were able to dig down in our line-up and find three guys who hadn’t been playing much and give them regular shifts. I am really proud of those guys.”

Saturday, the Cyclones were missing three of their best players – Spring, Brent Cornelius and Adam Mueller – because of the Central States Collegiate Hockey League All-Star game in Ohio. The Cyclones just used that as an opportunity for other players.

“Other guys just have to step up,” said freshman forward Cort Bulloch. “Guys that don’t normally go out there and score have to go out there and score; guys that don’t normally hit have to go out there and hit. I think we saw that.”

While the rest of the team took care of business in Ames, the all-star Cyclones took care of business in Ohio.

“[The all-star game] was a great time. Going into it, it was my first one, and I didn’t really know what to expect, but the all-star team was great. It was a great group of guys, we played well, and won 8-1,” Spring said. “Me, Mueller and Corn-dog [Cornelius] all had two points, so that was fun. It was just a good time – a good atmosphere – and it was fun getting to play with guys from other teams and getting to know them.”