A week after their stunning victory on the road at Penn State, the Cyclone hockey team is still firing on all cylinders, having swept the Fighting Illini in a two-game road series this weekend.

“Anytime you can win both of your games at Illinois, it’s unbelievable,” head coach Al Murdoch said.

Iowa State traveled to Champaign on Friday to tackle the University of Illinois at the Big Pond, among the most unfriendly of facilities for a visiting college hockey team.

“We knew we had to face the crowds,” Cyclone captain Darren Anderson said. “The seniors had to get the rookies prepared for them and everyone really responded well.”

In addition to housing some of the rowdiest fans in the game, the ice surface of the Pond is actually larger than regulation international ice, which is itself larger than the official surfaces in the United States.

To temper the sold-out arena crowd, the Cyclones brought a substantial fan following of their own, including the ISU hockey pep band and cheersquad.

“We had unbelievable support from our cheerleaders, our band and our fans,” Darren Anderson said.

In Friday night’s game, the Cyclones realized they needed to take the crowd out of the game, and they did so very early on.

“Their crowd wasn’t as big a factor with our fans there,” Murdoch said, “especially after we scored the first five goals.”

Mike Ogbourne scored high on goaltender Sam Eaton less than two minutes into the contest and Darcy Anderson added a breakaway goal just past the three-minute mark to get ISU off to a running start.

Additional first-period goals by Ogbourne, Darcy Anderson and Darren Anderson pushed the lead to 5-0 and took all but the faithful ISU fans out of the game.

The action settled down somewhat in the second period with the teams trading goals to make the score 6-1.

Mike Anderson scored for ISU off a faceoff won by center Glenn Detulleo.

The Illini netted four goals to the Cyclones’ two in the third period, but the game was out of reach too early for Illinois to make it close.

Greg Jones and Jesse Monell rounded out the ISU scoring on the night, making the final tally 8-5.

“Our opponents don’t know who to shadow on this team,” Murdoch said. “We have five really great scoring lines and just so many guys that can put the puck in the net. The other team doesn’t have enough people to cover us.”

Nick Makris was a wall in net over the first two periods, giving up his first goal with just over two minutes remaining before the second intermission.

Makris turned away 33 of 38 shots on the night.

In Saturday’s game, the Illini came out excited, looking to at least escape with a split, but the Cyclones were again too strong.

Heading into the intermission, ISU fought back from an early 1-0 deficit to tie the game on a Mike Anderson redirect of a Brian Paolello shot.

Jeff Smith gave the Cyclones their first lead just eight seconds into period two and Martin Birch extended the lead to 3-1 before the second buzzer.

The third period, like the five previous, was dominated by the Cyclones.

Darcy Anderson netted his third goal of the weekend less than two minutes into the period, but Illinois was able to answer shortly after.

That’s when Birch took over. The freshman forward added a pair of power play goals to complete his second hat trick of the season and put the game out of reach.

“When you play with linemates like my own [Ogbourne and Monell],” Birch said, “it makes the job that much easier.”

Illinois added a third goal late in regulation to make the final score 6-3.

“Our defense is starting to play extremely well,” Murdoch said. “We have a lot of guys that are really stepping up, and that’s scaring the heck out of our opponents.”

Dan LaVoie was the Cyclone goaltender in game two, turning away an outstanding 28 of 31 shots.

Over the 120 minutes of play, the Cyclones demonstrated their dominance offensively, defensively and between the pipes.

To add injury to insult, ISU also dominated the usually-tough Illinois squad in the realm of physical play.

“Their players were challenging us and even individually threatening our players in their newspaper,” Darren Anderson said. “We came out with something to prove and we won both games and seemed to end up on top in every fight.”

The Cyclones seemed to thrive on the hard-hitting style the series took where the Illini struggled.

Illinois captain Mark Riehle scored four goals over the course of the two games, but injured his shoulder early Friday night and may not have been 100 percent.

Also injured in the series were Illini forwards Walter Solala and Jeremy Hayes.

Late in Saturday’s contest, frustrated by the prospect of being swept at home, the Illini picked up the physical play an extra notch.

As time wound down, several scuffles broke out, involving everyone from 6’5″, 230-pound Tory Larson to 5’10”, 155-pound Nat Little.

As they had every other aspect of the series, the Cyclones continued to handle their rivals.

“Even Nat Little went out there and had a good fight,” Darren Anderson said. “He definitely got the decision, and that just showed our team’s toughness and depth.”

“I don’t condone the rough stuff,” Murdoch said, “but if I was in a street fight, I’d take my guys over anyone else.”

Heading into the home stretch before the national tournament in Delaware, the Cyclones host home series the next two weekends.

“We’re confident, but we’re not taking any teams lightly,” Birch said. “We just try to play hard each game and hopefully come out with a win.”

“We’re not focusing on nationals this year like we have in past seasons,” Darren Anderson said. “We’ll be ready when the time comes, but right now we’re still climbing.”

On Friday and Saturday, ISU will face off against conference opponent Wisconsin-Whitewater at the Ames/ISU Ice Arena. Both games start at 7:30 p.m.