The Cyclone hockey team rebounded from its first two losses of the season to win all four contests over the break, including the Chicago College Classic tournament championship.

Iowa State opened its break with a two-game series against the Minnesota Kodiaks, a junior-B professional team from the Twin Cities.

After disposing of their opposition 9-1 and 16-4, the Cyclones had begun to alleviate some of the frustration felt after consecutive losses to the Fighting Illini.

“[The Kodiaks] are a better team than we allowed them to be the past two nights,” head coach Al Murdoch explained when the series was over. “The guys were just skating well and clicking out there.”

In the opening contest, Iowa State jumped out to a 5-0 lead by midway through the second period before Minnesota finally got on the board with under two minutes to play.

The third period was dominated by the Cyclones, as the trend has been this season. They added four unanswered goals to further embarrass the Kodiaks and finish with a 9-1 score.

Marc Sarazin and Greg Jones, two of the Cyclones’ top defensemen, were the biggest offensive contributors on the night. Sarazin finished the game with a pair of goals and a pair of assists and Jones managed one goal and three helpers.

Jeff Richer, Kevin Koski, Jeremy Meyer, Glenn Detulleo, Brian Paolello and Joe Fiebiger rounded out the Cyclone scoring in game one and Dan LaVoie was excellent between the pipes, turning away 21 of 22 Kodiak shots.

The big story of game two was the return to the ice of Cyclone captain Darren Anderson.

The talented senior had been out for several weeks with a leg injury sustained in a game against the Arizona State Sun Devils.

Anderson played the center position to try to avoid extensive contact in the corners, but took less than one period to involve himself in a scrap at center ice.

With ISU already up two goals, Darcy Anderson skated the puck into the Minnesota zone along the far wall, but was speared by one of the Kodiak players.

As Darcy dropped to the ice, Darren took exception to the illegal hit and tackled the opposing player. Because the gloves were never removed, Darren received only two minutes for the scrum, which he dominated before the combatants were pulled apart.

Darcy, however, was not so lucky.

Upon regaining his feet, the Cyclones’ leading scorer moved into the pile to keep a second Kodiak player from hitting Darren from behind. When the situation was resolved, Darcy was slapped with a five-minute major penalty as well as a game misconduct for a phantom spearing call.

“When I got up, Darren was on top of the guy, but another player was trying to move in,” Darcy said. “I skated over, and we hit each other at the same time to keep each other away from the play. The referee felt that I speared the guy when I got up.”

“It was a situation where things had begun to get a little physical and the official saw what he referred to as a spear,” Murdoch said. “I’m not sure it was a flagrant spear, but that’s what he called, and Darcy will sit out the next game as well.”

Darren saw the situation similarly.

“A guy speared Darcy, and you can’t let your leading scorer get cheap-shotted,” he said. “I think I just gave him what he deserved.”

After the fireworks, the Cyclone scoring barrage began.

Iowa State had a 3-1 lead by the first intermission and increased that lead to 11-3 after the second period.

By the end, the game had turned into a 16-4 rout.

Darren notched a hat trick in his first game back to lead 10 Cyclones with goals.

Smith, Detulleo, Todd Dundas and Mike Anderson each had a pair of goals for Iowa State. Meyer, Jones, Fiebiger, Sarazin and Darcy Anderson rounded out the Cyclone scoring.

“Junior teams are pretty young,” coach Bill Ward explained. “We’re a little more mature than they are, so we just wore them down both nights and put them away with big third periods.”

“We moved the puck well, and we were skating well,” Mike Anderson added. “I think the flow of the game is something we can take into next weekend.”

The Cyclones did, indeed, maintain their high level of play at the Chicago College Classic, winning their first-round contest 6-3 over Rhode Island.

Iowa State fell behind 3-1 midway through the second period on a pair of power play goals by the Rams. The Cyclones were hampered in the early going by six consecutive penalty calls.

When they finally avoided the penalty kill, ISU went to work, scoring four unanswered goals to finish the second period with a 5-3 lead. After a final insurance goal in the third period, the Cyclones posted a 6-3 victory to move on to the championship round.

Smith had a pair of goals in the first game, with Fiebiger, Rose, Detulleo and Mike Ogbourne each collecting a goal apiece.

Nick Makris made his second consecutive start in net and turned away 19 shots for the win.

“That Rhode Island team was feisty,” Murdoch said. “We just had to get the turkey out of the way.”

The Cyclones were “marginally disappointed,” in the words of their coach, that their opponent in the championship round would be the Colorado Buffaloes.

The Buffaloes defeated Illinois 4-3 in the first round, forcing Iowa State to delay any thoughts of revenge for two more months.

“We’ll just have to wait a little while for the revenge factor,” Murdoch said.

The Cyclones apparently made the Buffaloes the target of their frustration, jumping out to a 4-0 lead and eventually emerging with an 11-1 win.

Darcy Anderson, Fiebiger and Nat Little each scored two goals against Colorado. Detulleo, Darren Anderson, Mike Anderson, Tom Grimwood, and Rob Rose each had one goal in the blowout.

“We started to fly as the weekend wore on,” Murdoch said. “I believe we’re hitting our pre-Christmas peak.”

LaVoie was back in goal against the Buffaloes, posting two shutout periods and giving up only one score overall.

After the competition, Jones, Smith and Darren Anderson were named to the all-tournament team.

“Jeff Smith had another tremendous weekend,” Murdoch said.

The freshman from Dubuque finished the tourney with two goals and three assists.

Jones was described by Murdoch as playing “great hockey, both on offense and defense.” The junior has been the Cyclones’ leader behind the blue line so far this year.

Darren has returned to nearly full strength and finished the competition with a goal and four assists.

“He’s a great leader on this team both on and off the ice,” Murdoch said.

Iowa State returns home for a one-and-one series with Kent State and Ohio this weekend.