Cyclone Hockey head coach Jason Fairman said before Iowa State’s series with Illinois that you can throw records out the window whenever the two teams play.

That was the case again this weekend, as the Cyclones weren’t intimidated by Illinois’ near perfect record and swept their CSCHL rival, handing the Illini their first two regulation losses of the season.

After taking the first game of the series 3-1 on Friday, the Cyclones earned the sweep in dramatic fashion on Saturday night by scoring two goals in the final 90 seconds to steal a come-from-behind victory with a score of 4-3.

“Our team showed great resilience,” Fairman said. “I’m very proud of the guys. This might be one of the most proud I have been of them for an effort like that.”

Part of that resilience came in the form of the Cyclones overcoming the loss of two of the team’s leaders for Saturday’s game. Junior forward Trevor Sabo was ruled out with an injury before the game even started, and senior captain Kody Reuter was ejected for an illegal hit on Illinois’ Stephen Quinn within the first six minutes of the contest.

Coming off an impressive win the night before, it would’ve been easy for the Cyclones to pack things up at that point and be happy with a series split against the No. 3 team in the country. Instead, buoyed by veterans like goalie Derek Moser and forward Tony Uglem, the team was able to stay afloat and keep the game tied going into the third period.

That’s when the young guns stepped up.

After sophomore A.J. Gullickson and freshman Dylan Goggin each got goals on Friday night, younger players on the Cyclones once again made key plays that allowed the Cyclones to come away with a victory. With the game tied 1-1 in the final frame, freshman Bryan Bandyk scored a power play goal to give the Cyclones a 2-1 lead early in the third.

However, the Cyclones would go on to give up two consecutive goals and find themselves in a 3-2 hole with only 3:25 remaining in the game.

That’s when the Cyclones got their biggest contribution from a freshman in the form of a Jared Erickson goal with only 1:23 remaining in the game. Set up by junior forward Jon Severson, Erickson says he was able to get the goal to go in due in large part because of a screen out in front of Illinois goaltender David Heflin. It was the first goal of Erickson’s Cyclone career.

“It’s nice to kind of get over that hurdle of getting your first goal, but hopefully I can continue with that,” Erickson said. “It was just a great weekend for our team and I’m proud of the team.”

Less than a minute later, the Cyclones got the biggest goal of the series from one of their leaders. Aaron Azevedo scored the game winner with only 38.6 seconds remaining to seal the victory and the sweep for the Cyclones, which moved their record on the season to 11-2-1.

After the game, Azevedo commented on the importance of coming away with a series sweep against a rival team, and that this weekend proves that the Cyclones have the potential to be a force to be reckoned with going forward.

“This was a big weekend for us,” Azevedo said. “To come away with this, it proved to us that we’re going to be a team to beat this year and that even when we’re down late, we can pull it out.”

That belief may very well be put to the test next weekend, as the Cyclones will now have the task of refocusing for a huge showdown next weekend against defending national champion Central Oklahoma.

Currently ranked No. 4 in the country this season, the Bronchos knocked the Cyclones out of the ACHA playoffs last spring en route to their second national championship in school history. With an added boost of confidence, Azevedo says that the team will be looking to settle a score with their ACHA rival for last season’s playoff defeat.

“Hopefully we can continue this momentum into next weekend and hopefully get some revenge back on [University of Central Oklahoma] at home,” Azevedo said.