The Iowa State women’s hockey club faced the Badgers on the road, where they got swept in a two-game series.
The Cyclones have now put up two goals or fewer in seven of their last eight games as their losing streak grows to four games.
The Cyclones struck first with defensemen Paige Hines getting on the board first. That was her second of the season and her first since the Cy-Hawk series at the beginning of the season.
The Badgers evened up the score midway through the second when forward Brynn O’Neill ripped one through goalie Natalie Kayser.
However, a minute following O’Neill’s goal, captain Tessa Strand got a goal herself to put the Cyclones up one again.
The game was tight going down the stretch, with Iowa State still up by a goal until O’Neill sniped her second of the game with 1:15 left in the contest.
All signs pointed to overtime until Badgers forward Ariana Evans put one past the Cyclones’ netminder.
Iowa State lost a heartbreaker 3-2 to Wisconsin and wanted to rebound in game two with Allison Moore in net.
Leading scorer for the Badgers, Kaitlyn Bush, recorded her eighth of the year 10 minutes into the match.
Wisconsin got put on the power-play, where they capitalized, putting themselves up 2-0.
The penalty was committed by Hines, who scored a goal in the first game but also committed six penalties in this series alone and 55 penalty minutes on the campaign.
Not all hope was lost as Saige Sopczak buried one home for her first goal of the season. The Cyclones were down 2-1 headed into the first intermission.
Evans put Wisconsin up 3-1 after she tallied her second of the series.
In the third period, the Cyclones and Badgers both traded goals and Iowa State lost its fourth game in a row, 4-2.
The goaltenders for the Cyclones were a bright spot, as Kayser allowed only three goals and Moore stopped 42 of 45 shots; one of the goals was an empty-netter.
The Cyclones need to score more, and that test comes against Augustana, the final weekend of February.
The two games against the Vikings will wrap up the season for Iowa State women’s hockey in the 2025-26 season.
