After stumbling out of the gate to open the second semester, Head Coach Al Murdoch’s Cyclone hockey team is once again on top of the world.

Iowa State traveled to Pennsylvania last weekend for the Nittany Lion Invitational tournament and returned home with a pair of victories and, in all likelihood, the national No. 1 ranking.

After easily polishing off No. 5 Towson State, 11-6, in the first round, the Cyclones were set to face No. 1 Penn State Saturday night on the Nittany Lions’ home ice.

After three periods of intense hockey, the Cyclones had re-asserted themselves as the nation’s best, upsetting PSU, 5-3.

Cyclone junior Brian Paolello quieted the sold-out crowd early, scoring a shorthanded goal just 1:52 into the game on an assist by Trevor Turnbull.

A combination of solid defensive play and the inspired goaltending of Dan LaVoie allowed ISU to maintain the 1-0 lead into the first intermission, despite playing shorthanded for six minutes.

The second period opened slowly, with both teams focusing on defense and failing to establish many offensive opportunities.

With just over ten minutes remaining, team leaders Darren and Darcy Anderson and Jeff Smith broke into the Nittany Lion zone. At 9:49, Darcy scored on the assists from Darren and Smith to put ISU up by a pair.

Before the end of the period, however, Penn State would net two goals of their own and the teams would enter the final twenty minutes tied at two.

Riding the momentum of their late second period success, the Nittany Lions came out strong in the third, taking their first lead of the game just 22 seconds in on a goal by C.J. Patrick.

The Cyclones took only five minutes to respond, with newcomer Trevor Turnbull burying the tying goal at 5:41 with an assist from Jeremy Meyer.

After a fierce battle the remainder of the period, it was ISU that would come up big in the end.

Paolello, suddenly one of the Cyclone’s biggest players in the clutch, scored the winning goal with just over six minutes to go. Freshmen Glenn Detulleo and Rob Rose contributed assists on the play.

PSU scrambled to even the score in the waning minutes, even pulling their goalie as time winded down, but they were unable to beat LaVoie late in the game.

The freshman netminder moved his record to 6-1-2 with the win by stopping 37 of 40 shots.

Smith rounded out the Cyclone scoring with an empty net goal off of a feed from Darcy Anderson as time expired.

The Cyclones and Nittany Lions played one of the cleanest games of the season, combining for only 20 penalty minutes, although two of the three PSU goals were on the power play.

In their first game of the weekend, the Cyclones bettered Towson State offensively, defensively and between the pipes.

Despite falling behind 2-0 to open the game, the Cyclones quickly tied the score and went ahead to stay, 3-2 at the end of the first period.

After a five-goal barrage in the second, ISU was comfortably in the lead and finished the contest up 11-6.

Paolello, Smith and Darcy Anderson each scored a pair of goals, with singles turned in by Darren Anderson, Turnbull, Detulleo, Jesse Monell and Mike Ogbourne.

Nick Makris held down the fort in game one, turning away 27 of 33 shots to pick up his team-leading ninth victory.