The No. 12 ISU men’s hockey club dropped its series at Eastern Michigan last weekend, which makes its three remaining weekends of hockey critical to making the American Collegiate Hockey Association tournament.

The Cyclones faced their fourth top-15 opponent in five weeks, and the puck did not bounce their way. That, paired up with the Eagles’ solid goalkeeping, kept Iowa State winless on the weekend.

Eastern Michigan goalie Jake Pruss played top-notch hockey for the Eagles on Friday, stopping every shot the Cyclones fired. The Eagles won 4-0.

Cyclone head coach Alan Murdoch said Pruss played a great game Friday night.

“He stopped everything we could shoot at him. Give him credit; he lifted his team to a win,” Murdoch said.

Murdoch said he was pleased with the team’s play despite the loss, and thought its goalie played strong as well.

Saturday night’s game was a much better offensive showing for Iowa State.

After two periods of play, the Cyclones and Eagles were knotted 3-3. Iowa State broke the tie, taking a 5-4 lead on goals from Rob Tauer and Jayson Peterson, but the 7th-ranked Eagles regrouped and clawed their way back into the game. They eventually tied the game and, with 31 seconds left in regulation, scored the game-winning goal, defeating Iowa State 6-5.

David Moline, Tim O’Shea and Griffen Gale had goals for Cyclones on Saturday.

Murdoch said he was disappointed with the way the game ended but pleased with the effort his team displayed this weekend.

“We’re playing pretty good right now; we just would have liked to get a couple big road wins down the stretch,” Murdoch said. “We’re anxious to get home again and get the winning streak going again.”

Home has been much more kind to the Cyclones than the road has.

They are 14-11 at the Ames/ISU Ice Arena (with one game held in Urbandale), and 3-8-1 on the road.

“We are all disappointed right now; we knew we could play with these guys, so it’s tough,” said senior Scott Hagen. “But we’re all ready to go home and take on Robert Morris.”