Number 800 will have to wait another week for ISU men’s hockey club head coach Alan Murdoch as the No. 8 ISU men’s hockey club team dropped a pair of tough games against No. 1 Ohio this weekend in Ames.

In Friday night’s game, Ohio held on for a 5-3 win. The game was a stalemate until Ohio netted the first goal 12 minutes into the game.

Iowa State continued to fight hard and broke through in the second period when senior Brent Popadych netted a power-play goal to tie the score at one. Then Ohio showed its rank, No. 1, taking advantage of several Cyclone errors and scoring four goals during the next 10 minutes of play to take a 5-1 lead.

The Cyclones never gave up, though, as senior Travis Fast scored a power-play goal with just under eight minutes left in the game to make the score 5-2.

Fast scored again 30 seconds later, making the score 5-3 and drawing the crowd back into the game.

But Ohio was able to hold off the Cyclones for the last seven minutes for the win.

Murdoch said he was pleased with his team’s play Friday.

“We played really well; Trent Baker was good in net, and I think our defense really showed improvement,” he said.

Saturday night’s game was fought equally hard. The Cyclones and Bobcats fought to a 3-3 stalemate going into the third period.

In that third period, Ohio scored twice and held off the Cyclones to take the game 5-3 and sweep the series.

Junior Zach Peterson, the Cyclones’ player of the week, said he thought his team’s effort was good during the series.

“They are No. 1 for a reason; we had them on the ropes a couple times, and they responded,” Peterson said. “We know what we need to work on for next week.”

Next week doesn’t get any easier for the Cyclones. They host No. 7 Weber State, a team that defeated the Cyclones last year in the American Collegiate Hockey Association tournament.

“They beat us in nationals last year, so we’ll be looking for a little payback,” Peterson said.

They Cyclones will also be looking to get Murdoch’s 800th win as head coach; he currently sits at 799 wins.