Goalie play has been stellar to start the season for Cyclone Hockey, and Matt Goedeke’s performance against Waldorf on Saturday night may have been the best performance by a Cyclone goalie to date.

The Cyclones rode their senior goaltender, along with a big second period, to a 3-0 shutout of the Waldorf Warriors, bringing the team’s record to a perfect 4-0-0 on the season.

Despite bringing only 20 players on the trip to Albert Lea, Minnesota due to various ailments, the Cyclones managed to come out of the gates swinging and dominated puck possession for much of the first period.  They weren’t able to turn their chances into goals, however, and the period ended with a score of 0-0 after both teams killed off penalties to keep the game deadlocked.

One particular play that stood out in the first happened toward the end of the period, when Waldorf got an excellent chance on a short-handed breakaway that was stopped by Goedeke. Goedeke made a risky play by coming out of the net to challenge the Waldorf forward with the puck, but was able to successfully poke it away to prevent a goal and keep the game even at zero.

In the second period, the Cyclones finally broke the scoreless tie. Aaron Azevedo scored off an assist from Colton Kramer just 25 seconds into the second period to give the Cyclones 1-0 lead, which would be the first of three times Iowa State would light the lamp in the period.

The Cyclones got themselves into some trouble at the under-13 minutes mark in the second after Kody Reuter and Jake Arroyo both got minor penalties to give Waldorf a full two-minute 5-on-3 opportunity. The Cyclone penalty kill, which had been playing well to start the season, was now facing a pivotal moment in the game that could’ve very well led to the Warriors seizing momentum and taking a hold of the game.

Instead, the Cyclones’ Trevor Sabo got a breakaway chance with Iowa State down two men and put one away high on the glove side of Waldorf’s Jeffrey Veitch to make it 2-0. This took the wind out of Waldorf’s sails, and shortly afterward, Colton Kramer scored what ultimately was the game’s final goal off a tic-tac-toe feed from Azevedo and Jon Severson.

While there was no scoring in the third period, there was plenty of chippiness to go around in the game’s final frame. There were several penalties in the period, and junior Cyclone defenseman Jake Arroyo even got a game misconduct with under five minutes remaining that ended his night early.

Arroyo got into it with a member of the Warriors after one of them ran into Matt Goedeke while the goalie possessed the puck.

Even though the third period was the apex, Waldorf had been playing physical with the Cyclones all night, and were more than willing to dish out big hits when the opportunities presented themselves. Kody Reuter briefly left the ice after taking one of these hits from Waldorf defenseman Matthew Liggitt, but returned shortly after to lay a big hit of his own and exact his revenge.

By the time the final horn sounded, it seemed as if the two teams had laid the foundation for a potentially intense rivalry going forward.

Cyclone hockey will be back in action next weekend as they take on Oklahoma in the team’s alumni weekend series, where five new members will be inducted into the team’s hall of fame. The puck drops at 7:30 p.m. at Ames/ISU Ice Arena.

(Note:  The original version of this story stated that the Cyclones got off to a slow start in the game.  This has since been corrected and changed.)