In a game where five players and a goalie are required to play, winning with a team of only eight players can be a challenge. That’s exactly what the Cyclone women’s hockey club faced heading into the weekend against the St. Scholastica Saints at the Mars Lakeview Arena in Duluth, Minn.

Iowa State (5-15-1) traveled to Duluth with only eight players because of illness and some other women unable to make the trip. This meant new lines, new types of exhaustion and a new game for the Cyclones when they faced St. Scholastica (10-8-1).

All the obstacles eventually caught up to the Cyclones and resulted in a series loss of 6-3 on Saturday, and 4-3 on Sunday.

“Considering the fact that only eight players could make the trip, the girls played incredibly well,” assistant coach Mike Gilbert said, “but they had to adapt to different positions and playing with a different line every time they went on the ice.”

The new lines seemed to work in the Cyclones’ favor Sunday morning. The Cyclones scored first at 15:38 but the Saints answered back minutes later and the score remained tied throughout the first two periods, 2-2. In a third period that typically hurts the Cyclones, this weekend proved to be different

. Even with only two substitutes on the bench, Iowa State remained in the game and scored first in the third period, with a two-on-one situation set up in the Cyclones’ favor. Gail Starr took a pass from Dominique Lind, who rebounded on Starr’s deflected shot to score and take the lead at 3-2. But St. Scholastica came back, scoring two goals for the win and ending the game, 4-3.

“In the third period of Sunday’s game we had some good scoring chances but couldn’t seem to find the back of the net at the end of the game when we needed it,” coach Joe McCarron said. “It seemed like we played some of our best hockey in the third period of both games this weekend despite so few players.”

Saturday also saw an impressive third period as the Cyclones fought back from a 5-0 deficit going into the third period.

“With only the seven skaters, the third period should’ve been our weakest period,” said Gilbert. “But the girls played through their tiredness and dominated.”

The Cyclones rallied in the third period, only allowing one goal by the Saints, and scoring three goals themselves, two of which were shot from the blue line by Lind and found the right bounce to go in.

“I iced the puck right to their goalie and by the time I rushed and got to the puck, it was already at the goalie – who didn’t come out of the net – but just let the puck slowly come to her,” said freshman Lind. “Before I knew it, the puck had slowly gone in, all with me barely touching it.”

The third goal midway through the period came from sophomore Suzy Froese, her first in a Cyclone uniform.

“It’s real hard to play one game with only two extra skaters on the bench, but we played phenomenal through both games with an even shorter bench than we normally have,” said McCarron.ÿÿ

Despite the extremely short bench and loss, the Cyclones were still able to take positives out of the weekend. “I think that this weekend we just really wanted to win, and having fewer players than normal, I think it made us want it even more,” junior Abbie Lehman said. “I guess it’s kind of an underdog theory at work and it helped us play six periods of hockey this weekend.”