For the first time in seven years and only the second time in school history, the Cyclone hockey team has been crowned national champs.

Head coach Al Murdoch’s squad closed out a storybook season Saturday by defeating No. 2 Penn State at the University of Delaware in the ACHA National Championship game, 6-4.

“It went right by our game plan,” Murdoch said. “We showed our depth and our off-ice training and conditioning. In the end, we did it. We won nationals.”

“It was unbelievable,” senior leader Darren Anderson said. “Guys were playing their hearts out. It was a very emotional win for everyone.”

The Cyclones opened the scoring early, as Tom Grimwood used a Nittany Lion defenseman as a screen to beat the goaltender, topshelf.

“He’s kind of a short goaltender,” Grimwood joked after the game. “I don’t even think he saw it.”

The celebration didn’t last long, however, as PSU roared back in the closing seconds of the first to score a late, disheartening goal.

“We went into the break down,” Grimwood said. “We really had to dig deep to come back.”

In the second period, Mike Anderson came up big, redirecting a Glenn Detulleo shot past the sprawling PSU netminder.

“Detulleo drew a pair of defenders to him before he shot it,” Anderson said. “I cut across the middle and deflected it just enough to throw off their goalie.”

The Nittany Lions didn’t take long to again knot the score, but ISU had the answer. Senior Mike Ogbourne slid the puck between his defender’s legs to a waiting Jesse Monell who slammed a one-timer toward the PSU net. The puck hit the goalie and trickled through for a tie-breaking goal.

Unfortunately for the Cyclones, the Nittany Lions were again able to net a back-breaking goal, this time with just one second remaining in the period, to tie the game at 3-3.

“That just meant we had to start over,” senior Darcy Anderson said. “It’s round one again and we outplayed them the whole game, so there was nothing to worry about.”

“We weren’t going to let them steal it from us,” Darren Anderson said. “This championship was our destiny.”

The Cyclones exploded in the final period as they have all season, with Ogbourne opening the scoring two minutes in by banging home a rebound of a Martin Birch slapshot.

“The late goals were pretty demoralizing,” associate head coach Bill Ward said, “but we were able to come back.”

It took Mike Anderson just 14 additional seconds to score his second goal of the game and put ISU up, 5-3.

Penn State added a goal a short time later, but Grimwood responded with his second goal of the game to make the final tally 6-4.

“We were ready for this one,” Darren Anderson said. “We had the right mix of experienced veterans and excited rookies, and everything just clicked.”

One of those excited rookies was Dan LaVoie, who turned aside all but four shots in the championship and maintained a 2.00 goals against average for the tourney.

“I finished the season just how I wanted to,” LaVoie said. “I was on top of my game and we couldn’t have asked for better team hockey.”

The freshman started all four contests and played a total of 240 minutes in the span of just four days, but said he was never winded.

“The adrenaline’s so high in that situation that you just want to play all the time,” he said. “I knew the team needed to stay even or ahead and I wanted to be the guy out there making the saves and keeping us in the game.”

“All four years led up to this,” Darcy Anderson said. “It was a quest all season long — it was our destiny.”

The championship capped an unbelievable Cyclone season that included a record 37 wins to go with just four losses and a pair of ties. ISU won the Central States Collegiate Hockey League outright before defeating the University of Michigan at Dearborn for the tournament trophy and advancing to the national tourney as the No. 1 team in the land.

“This was a storybook ending to an awesome career,” Darren Anderson said.

“That’s basically what it was,” Darcy Anderson added. “It was like living a fairy tale. You couldn’t write it any better.”

The victory was all the more satisfying because it came against the Nittany Lions on the heels of a 2-1 semifinal win over Ohio University.

Penn State knocked ISU out of last year’s tournament, and OU handed the Cyclones a second-place finish two years ago.

“That was just icing on the cake,” Darcy Anderson said. “The experiences we faced along the way set this up. It was our last go-round and we finally came through.”

In addition to the sense of accomplishment and the “national champion” title, the Cyclones returned to Ames for the first time ever with the Al Murdoch Cup, the ACHA national championship trophy.

“It was beginning to feel like an anchor around my neck,” Murdoch said. “It was named after me, but we never won it. This whole experience was very rewarding.”

The Cyclones reached the championship by defeating Ohio, as well as Delaware (7-1) and Eastern Michigan (7-2).

“I think it finally hit most of us when we rolled into Ames,” Darcy Anderson said. “It was a feeling of total accomplishment — a feeling I’ve never had before.”