Cyclone Hockey (13-9-1-1) wasted no time taking the lead on the Northern Illinois Huskies (3-15-0-0) in their eventual 7-0 win Friday night.

Senior forward David Rutkowski scored at the 0:20 mark in the first period. The Huskies gave up possession deep in their own zone. Rutkowski took the puck, circled behind the net and put a shot on goal that trickled by Northern Illinois goalie Chadwick Dodero.

“I think the team really just came together this week and wanted the win bad, so that’s about all it took — just a little bit of grittiness,” Rutkowski said.

It was the first of the seven Cyclone goals on the night. This surpasses the mark set in the team’s first game of the season on Sept. 20, when the Cyclones beat Waldorf 6-0.

Before Friday’s game, the Cyclones had just two games with four or more goals.

“We needed to get seven goals tonight and have a seven-goal difference, and that’s what we accomplished,” said coach Jason Fairman.

At 8:21 in the first, Cyclone forward Matty Moran doubled the Cyclone lead. Moran, who got the puck by way of fellow forwards Dylan Goggin and Payton McSharry, finished off the odd-man rush with a goal.

The Cyclones’ first period scoring had not yet concluded. At 17:00, defenseman Justin Paulson fired a pass off the boards that found fellow defenseman Joey Marcuccilli on the back post. Marcuccilli went top shelf, slotting the shot passed Dodero for the power play goal.

Cyclone Hockey took the 3-0 lead in the first intermission.

“I think we really worked the puck well; all four lines were going as a team,” McSharry said.

In the second period, forward Bryan Bandyk added a short-handed goal at 5:01 to make the score 4-0. The goal came directly from a face-off. Bandyk timed the drop well. The puck sprang off his stick and straight into the net, untouched by anyone else.

A couple of minutes later, Blake Ramsey took the puck into the zone and fired a low driven shot at Dodero. The puck deflected off the Northern Illinois net-minder and right to Rutkowski for the goal at 7:26, making the score 5-0.

The difference remained at five heading into the second intermission, but the Cyclones were not done.

They went on the power play at 2:03 in the third period and again took advantage of having the extra man. At 2:42, McSharry added a sixth goal to the scoreboard for the Cyclones. Goggin passed the puck to forward Max Kamper, who fired a shot that ricocheted off of Dodero. McSharry was there to finish the Cyclone chance.

“We were working really hard at practice this week, and we practiced scoring, honestly — as funny as that sounds,” McSharry said. “We really worked hard this week to get the puck in the net, and it really translated out there on the ice.”

Cyclone Hockey got another power play at 6:31. For the third time of the night, they used the man advantage to light the lamp. Paulson fired a shot from the blue line that made its way through traffic and into the back of the net.

Paulson’s goal capped off the scoring for the night, setting the new season high for the team this season.

Eleven Cyclones recorded at least one point in the game.

“We were sloppy at times, but I think for the most part I was pleased with our effort outside of a few things here and there,” Fairman said. “We achieved what we needed to tonight.”

The Cyclones take the ice again at 7:30 p.m. Saturday night in the Ames/ISU Ice Arena.