The roar of the Zamboni machine on a Friday evening at the Ames/ISU Ice Arena can only mean one thing.

The beginning of another exciting season of Iowa State Cyclone Men’s Hockey is upon us.

After last season’s 38-4-1 record, which ended in an ACHA Championship, the Cyclones are hoping to capture the title again.

Despite being forced to surrender their title for rules infractions, head coach Al Murdoch knows the team has come a long way and needs to show a lot of improvement as this season wears on.

“We have a ways to go,” Head Coach Al Murdoch said. “We’re not on the level of conditioning and ice speed that we probably need to be, but it’s early.”

The Cyclones are the coaches’ pre-season pick to finish first in the Central States Collegiated Hockey League, but will have to contend with strong teams like Ohio, Michigan-Dearborn and Eastern Michigan in order to win the league title, Murdoch said.

“All of the teams in our league have solid programs,” he said.

His squad is resting its hopes on a strong nucleus of returning veterans to compliment their talented new recruiting class.

“Our captains and veterans are doing a great job of showing leadership overall,” Murdoch said.

Lost from last season are the talented duo of Darcy Anderson and Darren Anderson. However, the cupboard is far from bare.

The Cyclones have an experienced group of returning players, led by sophomore scoring sensation Glenn Detulleo, the team’s second leading scorer last season.

Also returning will be the ever-present home ice advantage which the Cyclones find to be a huge benefit while battling through games.

“It’s a tremendous asset to have a huge crowd in our small building,” Murdoch said. “We consider the crowd our seventh man on the ice. They are probably equivalent to a one goal advantage in home games.”

Friday evening’s game was no exception, as the Cyclone’s used three goals in the third period – to the delight of the packed arena – to overtake the Arizona State Ice Devils, 4-2.

The Cyclones used a late scoring barrage in the third quarter and solid play from freshman goalie Nathan Dahlen to take the first of the two-game series from the Ice Devils.

The late scoring of the Cyclones proved to be too much for the Ice Devils, as ISU broke open the 1-1 tie with three goals in the final period.

“The third period, we just had more legs than they did,” Detulleo said.

His coast-to-coast goal with 4:16 left in the third period was the game winner, as freshman Andrew Murdoch added an insurance goal only two minutes later.

“I picked off a cross-ice pass at our end,” Detulleo said, “And when you have that much time, you should score a goal.”

The Cyclones finished the evening with 40 shots on goal while allowing the Ice Devils only 31. Both of the Devil goals were scored by Nils Satterstrom.

“They came at me with everything they had,” Dahlen said. “The two they scored were good shots, but I would have liked to have stopped them.”

The win, against the solid Ice Devils team, came in Dahlen’s first collegiate-level hockey game.

“It’s just a real good feeling to get this win, especially with a crowd like we had behind us,” Dahlen said.

Unfortunately, the Cyclone’s couldn’t record the sweep as Saturday night’s game ended after overtime in an 8-8 tie.

The Cyclone’s led the Ice Devils 6-4, but four power play goals by the Devils in the third period knotted the score at 8-8, which would turn out to be the final.

“Our team played a good game,” Murdoch said. “We would have liked to have swept the weekend series, but ASU was a real solid team.”

Detulleo had another strong performance, netting four goals on Saturday night to give him five for the weekend series.

“Glenn is just playing outstanding and some of our other players are beginning to step up,” Murdoch said.

The Cyclones, 3-0-1, will now prepare for this weekend’s home series against intra-league foe Eastern Michigan.