A disastrous third period doomed the Cyclone Hockey team on Friday night, as Iowa State fell to their Central States Collegiate Hockey League rival Ohio Bobcats 5-0 in Athens, Ohio.

The game, which started an hour and a half early due to inclement weather in the area, was actually a scoreless tie heading into the final frame. However, the Bobcats were able to score five unanswered goals from five different players in the third to hand the Cyclones their second straight loss.

“We played pretty decent in the first period and I thought we here going to have a good night,” said Cyclone Hockey head coach and general manager Jason Fairman. “We had a couple of point blank chances we didn’t score on and then we gave up three goals in under four minutes the last six minutes of the game.”

The Bobcats’ first goal of the game came on the power play 1:33 into the third period, courtesy of junior defenseman Grant Hazel after a Trevor Sabo tripping penalty. 

Exactly seven minutes later, sophomore forward Timmy Thurnau broke through to give the game a 2-0 score.

Then came the aforementioned three-goal onslaught in under six minutes that ultimately gave the game it’s 5-0 final score, the Cyclones third shutout loss of the season.  Sophomore forwards Tyler Harkins and Garrett Elmore, along with senior defenseman Jake Faiella, were three players to light the lamp for Ohio in that time span.

The loss now drops the Cyclones to 13-11-1 on the season.  The two teams will face off again on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. from Bird Ice Arena in Athens, Ohio.

According to Fairman, the key to bouncing back on Saturday to salvage a series split will come down to focusing both on the things that went right in Friday’s match up, as well as having consistent energy throughout the entire game.

“They’ve somehow got to put it past them and concentrate on the good parts of the game we played,” said Fairman. “For three-fourths of the game it was pretty close and could have gone either way. I just want a 60-minute effort.”