After concluding a successful weekend series against the Colorado Buffaloes on Saturday, the ISU men’s hockey club has begun to make a name for itself in what is considered as a very tough league.

Iowa State tied the first game of the series on Friday, 5-5. The Cyclones ended the series with a very strong performance in a 9-4 win Saturday. The team’s record this season is now 5-2-1.

“This season we were confronted with a tougher Colorado University that opposed us last year,” assistant coach Brian Preston said. “We went all out and put on one hell of a series.”

Tony Daniels, who scored four goals for the Cyclones in Saturday’s win, said the way the team was able to control the second game of the series shows just how resilient the team can be.

“After coming back from a tough tie on Friday night, it was a testament to our teams’ ability that we were able to spring back the next night and completely dominate,” Daniels said.

Daniels said the turnout was great for both games.

He was happy to see the crowd so excited.

“The fans were great this weekend,” Daniels said. “It’s great to have such a lively, rowdy bunch backing us up out there every game.”

Preston was especially pleased by the pressure Iowa State continued to apply to Colorado towards the end of the game Saturday. He said the team never relaxed and had good control throughout the game.

ISU head coach Al Murdoch was also happy with his team’s performance this weekend.

He commended several players – including Trent Mozak and Matt Ewert, Scott Hagen, Mike Moren and Daniels – for their strong play in the series.

“We showed a lot of enthusiasm out there in two fast paced matches,” Murdoch said. “The defense was solid, our goaltenders played with brute force and our forwards were putting it all out there with a good old reckless abandon.”

The schedule doesn’t get any easier for the club, Murdoch said.

The Cyclones will face Kent State – arguably one of hte most physical teams in the league – next weekend.

“Along with Kent State, we’ve got a tough schedule coming up,” Murdoch said. “We’re taking on the big dogs. We definitely have a lot of exciting competition ahead of us to look forward to.”

Murdoch said his team will have a week to prepare and won’t let up in their preparations.

“This week, what we will need to work on most is polishing up on our power play, our speed, and also on our execution,” he said.