After the Cyclones secured their first home victory of the season, the team heads to take on one of their hardest opponents yet. With both teams on a win streak, the question arises: can Iowa State dethrone the 8-0 Drury team?
Going into this matchup, the Panthers are undefeated and sit second in men’s D1 Independent teams. Drury also has 24 points prior to this series.
The visiting Cyclones tell a different story as the team has faced adversity all season. With a 2-2-1-1 record, Iowa State looks like the serious underdog in the series. The team also sits sixth in the Midwest College Hockey (MCH) conference with seven points.
Last season, the Cyclones and Panthers played each other four times. Drury beat Iowa State in all four games.
Despite the obvious difference in team performances, Iowa State head coach Jonas Hostovecky focuses on how important the commitment of the team is, regardless of how a team looks on a stats sheet.
“I just hope that now they see if they play for 60 minutes, that every team is beatable,” Hostovecky said.
The key for the Cyclones is to maintain high drive and morale as the team continues to take on tough opponents. Going into this game, the stars of Iowa State will lead the team into the chaos.
For the third week in a row, forward John Kovarik leads all of the Cyclones forwards with seven points. Kovarik has three goals and four assists. Drury forward Luke Aston leads the team with 11 points, which consist of four goals and seven assists.
On defense, Benjamin Pfannenstein leads the Cyclones with six points, which consist of two goals and four assists. Drury’s leading defenseman is Grady Sterling-Ponech, who has seven points. Sterling-Ponech has one goal and six assists.
With an electric series for goalie Noah Behrens-Gould in the series against Waldorf, the Cyclones’ main goalie, William Pinney, earned a break, but he looks to fill the starting goalie position in this series.
“Since Pinney’s our number one, he just needs some off, we have a hard weekend next weekend,” Hostovecky said.
This goalie tandem has proven to come in clutch in big moments this weekend will test their performances. Both of Iowa State’s goalies rank within the top ten MCH goalies. Behrens-Gould sits in the seventh-place spot with a .914 save percentage. Pinney follows with the eighth place and a.886 save percentage.
The Panthers’ leading goalie is Jozef Kuchaslo, who has a .942 save percentage. With this percentage, Kuchaslo leads all D1 American Collegiate Hockey Association (ACHA) goalies. Kuchaslo opened the season with a shutout and has continued to dominate this season.
For Iowa State to come up big in this series, it will take a lot of discipline on both sides of the ice. The Panthers have been lighting the goalies up as every game for them has been a barn-burner.
With this in mind, Iowa State’s defense will have to remain ice cold to come out on top. On the other end, the offense will have to be piping hot to keep up with the Panthers.
One final defining factor for both teams will be the power plays and penalty kills.
Iowa State looks better on the power play with an 81% success rate, but on the penalty kill, Drury looks to derail the scoring opportunities. The Panthers have an 84% success rate on the penalty kill.
For the Cyclones, a determining factor for this game is the energy the team puts up.
“Energy, I mean, yeah, just having the entire team be energetic working and pushing in one direction and all staying focused keeps us on track and never take off a shift,” Behrens-Gould said. “That’s how we’re gonna win our games.”
The Cyclones will head to Springfield, Missouri, to face the Panthers at 7 p.m. Friday and 6 p.m. Saturday. Both games will be played at Brightspeed Ice Park.
