Last weekend, Travis Denzel provided some late heroics for the ISU men’s hockey club.

Denzel scored two game-winning goals in overtime as the Cyclones defeated the University of Michigan-Dearborn 4-3 on Friday and 6-5 on Saturday in a Central States Collegiate Hockey League (CSCHL) contest.

With last weekend’s sweep, Iowa State is 18-12-2 overall.

“That was an awesome sweep. It’s a real good confidence booster for this team,” said assistant coach Brian Wierson. “The guys in the lineup that don’t usually play stepped up big time for us. Nolan Thompson played real well as goalkeeper. To see Travis score both overtime goals is real good for him.”

The Cyclones played without head coach Alan Murdoch, senior captain Andrew Murdoch, and junior assistant captain Tony Daniels in Saturday’s game. All three are in Tarvisio, Italy, for the World University Games. They will return on Jan. 24.

In Saturday’s contest, the Iowa State power-play killing unit responded in a big way as Jeff Smith tallied the first goal short-handed with an assist from Chris Linden. After Michigan-Dearborn knotted the score, Brett Popadych put the Cyclones up 2-1 off a feed from Linden.

Michigan-Dearborn tied the score three seconds into the second period. Brooks Clinton put Iowa State ahead at 3-2 as he fired a blast from the left slot.

At the start of the third period, Denzel scored the Cyclones’ second short-handed goal to make the score 4-2. A few minutes later, Michigan-Dearborn would tie the score at four. With 3:30 left in the third period, Linden scored his first goal as a Cyclone to put Iowa State up 5-4. At the 1:29 mark, Michigan-Dearborn tied the game to send it to overtime.

Denzel capitalized with 2:30 remaining in the overtime period when he put a backhand shot past the UM-D goalkeeper. It was Denzel’s second straight overtime win.

“We knew they were must-win games last weekend,” said Phil Hummel, who was serving as honorary captain. “We skated real hard and conditioned well last week. In the first period of both games, we were flying. We were down some and battled back. Denzel’s game-winning goals were pretty top-shelf goals.”

On Jan. 3 and 4, the Cyclones opened up the second half of the season as they traveled to Minot State University. Iowa State dropped both games, losing 6-0 and 7-1.

“We gave the guys two weeks off before we went to Minot State and we practiced for four days,” Wierson said. “For us, that’s not an excuse though. They’re the No. 3-ranked team and they’re a good, veteran team.”

In the first game of the series, Minot State scored four power-play goals. In Saturday’s game, Iowa State went on top 1-0 after the first period, but Minot State answered with seven straight goals for the win.

“On Saturday, we came out smoking and got the lead,” Hummel said. “They scored some quick goals and we kept battling and battling. Even though we lost, our attitude was still upbeat.”

Wierson said the Cyclones couldn’t control Minot State’s power play goals in the first game.

“We fixed that problem on Saturday,” Wierson said. “They just scored in bunches that night. They scored three goals in two minutes and that blew the game open.”

The Cyclones will play Western Michigan this weekend in a big CSCHL contest at the Ames/ISU Ice Arena. “They’re No. 2 in the standings and we’re No. 8. We’re only 12 points behind them, so if we sweep, we’ll only trail by four points,” Wierson said.

“It’s going to be a huge weekend. We’re going to work on our defensive zone coverage and keep working on our conditioning.”

Hummel said that he’s looking forward to the weekend. “We’re looking to steal two from them,” Hummel said. “We’re looking forward for the fans to come back and become enthusiastic. It’s going to be some fast, hard-hitting hockey.”