Every week, the ISU men’s ice hockey team has looked at the schedule, hoping to get a break, but has found things would not get any easier.

This time, a schedule that’s had nearly no breaks brings them to Kent State.

The Cyclones travel to Ohio to face Kent State in their final road trip of the regular season before going back on the road for both the CSCHL and ACHA tournaments.

The Cyclones are 7-4-1 on the road, and hope to improve on their record away from home heading into the tournaments.

“I think just going out on a good note and playing well on the road is always a big thing,” said captain David Moline. “Knowing that you can do it, and having confidence doing it, is always huge.”

Despite Kent State’s record of 9-19-0 and No. 19 ACHA ranking, it recorded a win over No. 3 Ohio University two weeks ago. Cyclone assistant captain Alan Raushel said he knows his team won’t be let down after facing No. 7 Weber State last weekend.

“I don’t think we’ll have any problems as a team getting ready for this game,” Raushel said. “We had a good team talk coming into this weekend, and I think everyone’s really enthusiastic about playing.”

The Cyclones are chomping at the bit to return to the ice, especially after the way Saturday night’s overtime game with Weber State ended.

“I think it’s always a little sour after you tie a team you think you should beat,” Moline said. “There’s always a bit of an empty feeling that makes you want to get back out there.”

It wasn’t just the 1-1 tie on Saturday night, but it was also the way the overtime game ended that left the sour taste with coaches, players and fans.

With the game knotted at one point each in the overtime period and time winding down, the Cyclones were given an apparent gift in the form of an intercepted pass.

The pass led to a breakaway for the Cyclones, a deflected shot, a skirmish in front of the net and the apparent game-winning goal with less than eight seconds remaining.

It was not to be, however, and after a brief conference, the referees took away the goal, and the win.

“It was called a goal initially, and I’m not exactly sure why it was reversed,” said head coach Alan Murdoch. “I never got an explanation other than that they couldn’t confirm for sure that it was a goal.”

Even more discouraging was the Cyclones had gotten back to dominating in the same fashion as they had the previous night. They took seven shots, compared to Weber State’s two during the overtime period.

In Friday’s game, the Cyclones took advantage of an abundance of power plays and had won by a commanding 6-2 score.

Every one of the Cyclone goals for the series came on the power play.

Despite the tough tie on Saturday, the Cyclones’ coach still feels good about his team’s performance over the weekend, and their 27-5-2 record.

“It was a very important series for us, because we’re ranked No. 5 and they’re ranked No. 7,” Murdoch said.

“A convincing win 6-2 and a tie 1-1 leaves [the rankings] pretty stable.”