After four straight weekends of road games, the Iowa State men’s hockey team and Head Coach Al Murdoch are ready to return to the friendly confines of the Ames/ISU Ice Arena.

Strangely, the Cyclones might want to continue playing on the road.

Coach Murdoch’s squad finished up it’s final road trip before winter break with a weekend sweep of Wisconsin-Whitewater, going 7-1 in the past eight road games.

“It seems like we saw half of the country the past four weeks,” Murdoch said. “Even when you are winning, the road trips can be a drain on you. It will be nice to play at home this weekend.”

Friday evening’s contest saw the Cyclone’s ride the scoring power of 2 goals apiece by Glenn Detulleo and Nat Little en route to a 6-3 victory. Mike Anderson and Jeremy Meyer each added a goal as well.

“Once again we had a very balanced attack, and our goalies and defense is playing outstanding,” Murdoch said.

The Cyclones were aided in Friday night’s win by outstanding special teams play as the team recorded three power play goals and two shorthanded goals.

Jake Hinderman was strong in front of the net as he secured the win for the Cyclones on Friday night by stopping 24 shots.

“All of the lines are blending really good right now,” said senior co-captain Brian Paolello. “It’s a great feeling when all the lines are scoring goals.”

Saturday evening’s contest wasn’t quite as easy for the Cyclones as it took a rebound goal by Detulleo at the 1:33 mark in overtime to get the 5-4 victory.

“Over the year’s that I’ve been here, we have always been a strong team in overtime,” Murdoch said. “It was a rewarding feeling for this team to win it in overtime.”

Goaltender Nathan Dahlen secured the victory for the Cyclones saving 33 shots on the night.

Detulleo led the team again on Saturday night with 2 goals as Mike Anderson, Jon Anderson and Andrew Murdoch each scored a goal.

“With Glenn [Detulleo] it is almost like the puck has eyes,” Murdoch said. “He takes a lot of high percentage shots and they find the openings in the net.”

After the weekend, Detulleo and Brian Paolello are ranked as the No. 1 and No. 2 scorers in the ACHA, and Mike Anderson is in the top 20.

“Those three guys are just playing as hard as they can play, and the leadership they are showing is filtering down to the rest of the team,” Murdoch said.

Anderson said despite the long road trip, the team’s confidence level is at its highest of the season going into this weekend’s home contest against Minot State University.

“Confidence is extremely important at this level of hockey,” he said. “We have to believe that we can play with any team we face.”

The Cyclones split a road series with Minot State earlier in the season and are eager to improve their 13-7-1 record in the ACHA.

“Last time we had a long trip to get up there and now they have to take the long trip to play here,” Anderson said. “We are looking forward to getting to play them in our arena.”

Coach Murdoch said, “We’ll be looking for our defense and goaltending to carry us through the weekend, but we just have to take it a game at a time.”