Just as the basketball teams had done earlier last week, the Iowa State hockey team defeated the Colorado Buffaloes, 9-2.

Playing at home for the first time since the beginning of December, the No. 2 Cyclones improved their overall record to 21-4-2.

The weekend series was cut short when Saturday’s game was cancelled due to poor ice conditions at the ice arena.

The first period saw the Cyclones coming out and playing a physical game.

Associate head coach Bill Ward was satisfied with his team’s physical style of play.

“We only had three penalties all game. I’m pretty proud of that. They were able to still play a physical game but to stay out of the penalty box.”

Goals by Martin Birch and Nat Little put the cardinal and gold up 2-0 after the first period.

Three more goals put ISU up 5-0, when Colorado scored with two seconds left in the second period.

“We played pretty good defense, giving up the goal at the end of the second was a let down for us. I wasn’t too happy with that,” Ward explained.

Goalie Dan Lavoie played well, turning away 20 of Colorado’s 22 attempts to score.

“Our goalie, Dan Lavoie played outstanding. Defensively we held them to two goals, kind of what we wanted, two goals or less,” Ward said.

The Cyclone offense had another impressive game.

“Offensively, we put nine goals up on the board, so we have to be happy with that.”

Martin Birch turned in a hat trick and Brian Paolello added two goals. Additional goals were scored by Darcy Anderson, Mike Ogbourne, Glenn Detulleo and Nat Little.

Jesse Monell and Darren Anderson contributed three assists each.

The newcomers to the Cyclones, including Martin Birch, have added extra firepower to ISU’s attack.

“Martin’s a natural goal scorer ,and you can see that already,” Ward said. “The newcomers are adding a little depth to our team, but we had a pretty good core from last semester as well.”

Next weekend the team will be playing in the Nittany Lion Invitational, hosted by No. 1ranked Penn State.

“After last weekend — experiencing a couple losses and a tie — it’s definitely good to come out and start quickly and get back on the winning track,” Ward said. “We’ve got to do as much as we can to keep it going, to improve and to be prepared for next weekend.”