Cyclone Hockey’s matchup against No. 3 Lindenwood on Saturday followed a familiar trend, which unfortunately for Iowa State meant a familiar result.

The No. 11 and fourth-seeded Cyclones were knocked out of the Central States Collegiate Hockey League Tournament by the top seeded Lions by a score of 2-1.

Iowa State held a 1-0 lead into the third period, but two goals by Lindenwood’s Zach Mitchell in the final frame ended ISU’s hopes of repeating as CSCHL tournament champions. This marks the fourth straight game between the two teams where the game was an even affair throughout, only for Lindenwood to come away victorious.

“[Lindenwood’s] one of the top teams year in and year out,” said Cyclones head coach and general manager Jason Fairman. “This is the premier league in the country. You’ve got to be prepared to bring your A-game, game in and game out.”

Also following a trend that was established in the series between these two teams three weeks ago in Ames, the Cyclones had some bad bounces go their way that contributed to the loss.

The most glaring example of this was in the third period when senior goalie Derek Moser had a puck take an odd bounce past him for the Lions’ first goal of the game.

That goal, as well as Mitchell’s second goal of the period, undercut what the Cyclones say was a good night for the team defensively. The Cyclones gave up less than 30 shots on the afternoon to Lindenwood and up until the final frame were holding the Lions in check.

“Tonight we controlled that game for two periods,” junior defenseman Nick Sandy said. “Lindenwood is obviously an elite team in the league and holding them to two goals, we’ll take that, especially if one of them is a lucky bounce.”

On the other end, the forwards didn’t have much good fortune either. One night after scoring six goals against No. 6 Robert Morris, the Cyclones were stymied once again by a Lindenwood defense that’s given up only five regulation goals to the Cyclones in five meetings between the two teams.

Iowa State wasn’t without its chances, though. The Cyclones had several good scoring opportunities throughout the afternoon, but were consistently shut down by Lindenwood starting goalie Michael Hails.

Even when Hails left with an injury in the second period, backup Cooper Seedott proved to be just as capable. Seedott gave up zero goals in five periods against the Cyclones three weeks ago in Ames, and he picked up right where Hails left off by once again shutting out the Cyclones in relief of his injured predecessor.

At the center of most of these rejected scoring chances, seemingly, was junior forward Colton Kramer. Throughout the game, Kramer had several near-goals, but couldn’t find a way to put one home for either a tie or to extend the lead.

Kramer was quick to give credit to Hails and Seedott for that fact but also admitted that he was frustrated with how the game played out for him and the team. Most frustrating, at least through Kramer’s eyes, is the fact that he believes the better team lost today.

“I think we outplayed (Lindenwood) most of the game, so we really should’ve won in my opinion,” Kramer said.

This isn’t the first time that team members have echoed that sentiment after a game against Lindenwood, so how do the Cyclones actually finish the job if the two teams play again?

According to Sandy, it all comes down to the team developing a killer instinct. He agrees that the Cyclones played well today, and both he and Kramer say that not much needs to be changed going forward outside of that.

However, knowing that the national tournament is in less than two weeks and that the Cyclones will have to play teams at the level of Lindenwood, Sandy says that the team will need to develop that instinct soon if Iowa State is going to make any sort of run.

“When we’re up on teams, we can’t let them get back into it,” Sandy said. “We’ve got to come out in the third with the mentality that we want to put them away.”