A milestone was reached last Friday as the ISU men’s ice hockey team defeated Missouri State 7-1, recording its 30th win of the season. It finished the sweep Saturday, winning 5-2 and bringing its overall record to 31-5-2 for the season.

“I think the guys like hitting these plateaus,” said coach Al Murdoch. “They’re into record territory, and I told them that they’re going to be in the history books with the few teams that have hit 30 wins.”

For some of the athletes, it seemed surreal.

“It’s all happened kind of fast,” said forward Mike Murtaugh.

“A win here, a win there, you start going on streaks and all of a sudden you have 30. It’s like – wow.”

Murtaugh helped the Cyclones off to a quick start on Friday, scoring a goal off a rebound from a shot by forward Mike Paulsen just 20 seconds into the game, setting the tone for the rest of the night, and the series.

“I think we just set the tempo of saying, ‘Hey, we’re going to go out and pile drive you in your zone all night.’ I mean, we sent the tempo for sure,” Murtaugh said.

The Cyclones never looked back, and it was more of the same on Saturday as Paulsen scored just 40 seconds into the game.

After scoring the opening goal of Friday’s game, Murtaugh’s weekend was far from over. He scored once more on Friday, and then on Saturday powered the offense with a three-goal effort. Murtaugh’s five-goal performance earned him player of the week, as voted by the team.

His five goals move his team-leading total to 32 for the season, and into a tie for second place with Allen Raushel at 53 points, behind team leader Trevor Graham, who has 54.

The goalie tandem of Trent Baker and Matt Johnson combined for a save percentage of 96 percent for the weekend. Baker impressed coaches and teammates after he suffered two bone-crushing blindside hits, by saving 34 of the 35 shots he faced on Friday.

“He’s always one of the hardest workers on and off the ice,” Murdoch said. “If anybody can take a good solid hit, it’s Baker, so I knew he’d get up and I knew he’d finish the game out.”

Baker, who was still feeling woozy after the game, talked about the hits he took.

“I didn’t even know that it happened,” he said.

“I didn’t see the guy coming on my left, and I slid across and he rammed me. It wasn’t fun, I know that.”

The Cyclones are now 7-0-1 in their last eight games, and will go into a series with the University of Illinois Friday and Saturday at the Ames/ISU Ice Arena.