If both teams had not been wearing the Cyclone logo on their sweaters no one at the Ames ISU Ice Arena would have guessed they were watching the ISU intrasquad hockey game last Friday.

“It was one of the more competitive intrasquad games we’ve ever had,” ISU Hockey Head Coach Al Murdoch said.

Players on both the red and white teams played with post-season type spirit and intensity as the white team prevailed 9-6. Veteran right-winger Aaron Scharf notched a hat trick and two assists to lead the white squad in scoring while captain Brian Wierson added two goals to the winning effort.

For the red team, center Chris Poli led in scoring with two goals and an assist. Rearguard Bob Dressel tallied a pair of goals while dishing out several bone-jarring checks along the boards and in the open ice.

The white team jumped out to an early lead only 28 seconds into the first period when Wierson went high to beat goalie Neil Gilmore.

After Scharf added his first goal of the game to expand the white team’s lead to 2-0, Poli put the red team on the board at 9:42 of the first period.

The white team would answer four minutes later when Scharf one timed a beautiful feed from captain Rusty Crawford to beat Gilmore on the short side.

The white team threatened to go up 4-1 late in the first period with a two on one rush, but the play was broken up nicely by Dressel. On the same shift, Dressel would charge up ice, fight off some aggressive backchecking and fire a slapshot by goalie Rob Howitt with only eight seconds left in the period.

Early in the second period, the red team went on the power play and thought they had tied the score. However, the goal was kicked in and was therefore ruled no-goal.

Both squads special teams units looked good according to Murdoch.

“I saw some good movement on the power play and some good quickness on penalty killing,” Murdoch said. “Those are the building blocks on special teams.”

The white team killed off the penalty and charged right back. Borud unloaded a shot on goalie Mike Grammatikos and Grammatikos made the save but couldn’t corral the rebound and Scharf knocked it in to make it a two goal lead once again for the white team.

Over the next seven minutes of the second period, five goals were scored by both teams including Poli’s second for the red team. The white team answered the goal just over a minute later when Wierson forced a turnover near the blue line and snapped a wrister by Grammatikos.

The red team came back 24 seconds later when Darren Anderson took a shot that goalie Jon Thomas couldn’t get a handle on.

With the score 5-4 white, the white team went on the power play. The white team couldn’t convert, but scored on a pass from Mike Brown that was deflected in by Wade Eldridge at 13:18, shortly after the penalty to the red team had expired, to once again establish a two-goal advantage. Second period scoring was rounded out by Dressel, who closed the gap to 6-5 heading into the final period.

Jason Vega tied the score at six with a backhand that beat goalie Dave Niewolny.

The score remained tied for most of the remainder of the third period as the two teams battled it out with fire and intensity on every line.

Captain Doug Borud broke the tie and scored what would prove to be the eventual game winner at 18:12 of the period. Borud broke away and bore down on Finnish goalie Alexksi Ylonen one on one. The big winger went high glove side to beat Ylonen for the winning tally.

The white team went on to score two more goals, including an empty netter, in the final minute and a half of regulation.

“It was a solid effort all the way around,” Borud said. “Everybody played with a lot of emotion and it was a competitive game.”

The game was a display of the depth of this season’s Cyclones.

“We played a total of seven forward lines and seven defensive sets and they all played a very solid game,” Murdoch said.

This depth was absent at last year’s national tournament loss to Ohio University in the finals.

“The national championship is foremost in everyone’s minds,” Murdoch said. “The last experience a lot of these players had was the loss to Ohio University in the championship game last season.”

The Cyclones begin their quest for the national title October 4 and 5 at the Ames ISU Ice Arena as they host highly-ranked conference rival Illinois. Game time is 7:30 pm.