The Cyclone Hockey team (17-11-1) finally broke out of the dark cloud that has been looming them after sweeping No. 5 Robert Morris this past weekend at the Ames/ISU ice arena.

The Cyclones entered the weekend not having the luxury of a full roster to utilize.

The team was without Tony and Jake Uglem — both who are playing for Team USA at the 2017 Winter World University Games — Adam Alcott due to the flu, Trevor Sabo due to an injured hip and leading scorer Aaron Azevedo due to injury.

Despite the adversity, the Cyclones prevailed and were led in scoring by defenseman Jake Arroyo with four points, and with a strong performance in net by Derek Moser who saved 55 of 58 shots.

Freshman Taylor Bowman, who has played just 10 games prior to the weekend, was called up in order to help fill the gap in the team’s roster for both games that were arguably the most crucial of the season. However, the additional pressure was nothing extra that the rookie focused on heading into the weekend.

“We talked about being on the losing streak,” Bowman said. “But, we all knew what we needed to do to get out of it and get back in the win column.”

The weekend showcased success in areas that the Cyclones had been working hard to improve on as of late, such as cleaning up penalties, putting forth a consistent effort, and lighting up the offense.

In game one of the series, Iowa State had improved their execution and had a better look overall from previous games this semester. The Cyclones defeated the Eagles in a 3-1 victory with goals from Arroyo, A.J. Gullickson and Jon Severson.

“A lot of the guys are in good spirit right now, losing five in a row is not easy especially this time of year,” Arroyo said. “Coach comes in and just talks about moving on and you’ve got to always focus on the next game, next shift and small things like that.”

The confidence from Friday night allowed the Cyclones to prevail onto game two in a thrilling shootout victory. With goals from Arroyo, Colton Kramer and shootout goals from Chase Rey, Arroyo and Eero Helanto, the Cyclones topped Robert Morris 3-2.

“The sweep was great for the team,” Moser said. “So, hopefully now that the ships alright we will keep on going.”

Prior to Robert Morris, the Cyclones often found themselves in penalty trouble throughout matchups. This weekend, Iowa State was able to turn things around to recieve four penalties in game one and just three in game two thus enabling the Cyclones to have more time on to score 5-on-5.

The power-play was one of Iowa State’s best displays over the weekend with two momentous power play goals in Friday’s match up.

In Iowa State’s other six power play opportunities, the team was able to generate a lot of shots from their fluid passing game even though they were unable to tally a point.

The power play was significant, but it was just the icing on top of a surplus of strong goaltending and a loud offensive game.

Coach Jason Fairman was pleased with the timing of the sweep against the fifth-ranked Eagles as the Cyclones will face another tough opponent next weekend, in the home of the defending National Champions, Lindenwood.

“They need to get used to these high intensity situations,” Fairman said. “That’s how we made our run last year to the title game and we are going to have to do that again this year.