Coming off a split with the Alabama Crimson Tide, Iowa State was looking to use the familiarity of Ames to build some momentum. Northern Illinois came in with a 3-14 record, so the Cyclones hoped that they could get a dominant win.

The Cyclones didn’t mess around, scoring 20 seconds into the game off a David Rutkowski shot. Iowa State was dominant early, not really allowing the Huskies time to develop in the offensive zone.

A setup by Dylan Goggin and Payton McSharry gave Matty Moran a goal eight minutes later. The Cyclones added another on the power play from Joey Marcuccilli at a tough angle, putting the Cyclones up 3-0 at the end of the first.

Iowa State had some relatively new faces on the ice, with Justin Callahan, Brooks Mitzel and Erik Evans seeing ice together on the same line. Callahan was a defenceman with Max Olson, their starting blue-liner.

Both teams were aggressive to start, but the physicality went down aside from the minor penalty to Noah Carlock that resulted in the power play goal.

The second period started with two tripping penalties essentially back-to-back that gave the Cyclones a good four minutes of power play time that they were unable to capitalize on.

The Cyclones fared better being down a man when shortly after Goggin went to the box for goaltender interference, Bryan Bandyk scored off the faceoff shorthanded to put the Cyclones up 4-0.

Rutkowski added his second goal of the night to make it 5-0 about two minutes after off the rebound, and that was all the action until the 2nd intermission.

The third period saw the Cyclones striking quickly once again. Northern Illinois got called for a penalty and McSharry took advantage of a rebound chance from Max Kemper to make it 6-0.

The Huskies got another man in the sin bin for tripping, and Iowa State immediately took advantage with another power play goal. This time it took the form of a shot from the point by Justin Paulson.

The final score was a 7-0 showing by Iowa State. Rutkowski had two goals, and all the other scoring was well spread for the Cyclones. They continue their series with Northern Illinois Saturday night at 7:30.