Cyclone Hockey coach Jason Fairman didn’t know why his team wasn’t able to pull away from Illinois in Saturday night’s game, a game the Cyclones completely dominated by their own disclosure but still lost.

“I don’t have an answer for that,” Fairman said.

Forward Aaron Azevedo said the Illini did a good job of collapsing to the net to block a lot of the Cyclones shots.

Defenseman Jake Arroyo said it was simply a matter of putting the puck in the back of the net.

Nevertheless, Cyclone Hockey was unable to complete the sweep of Illinois losing 2-1 on Saturday night in a shootout after recording a 4-3 win on Friday night.

“We absolutely [expletive] dominated them,” said one Cyclone Hockey player as he left the locker room, “And we still lost.”

The Cyclones out shot the Illini 34-19 and possessed the puck far more than their opposition on Saturday.

“I can’t remember the last time I saw a team, from a territorial standpoint, dominate a team like that in puck possession time,” Fairman said. “I feel bad for the guys to dominate in every area except the scoreboard and to not come away with the win.”

Despite the Illini coming into the series with seven fewer wins than the Cyclones, the interstate rivalry has provided some of the most exciting hockey of the year in the American Collegiate Hockey Association. All four of the matchups have been decided by just a single goal this season and three games, including Saturday night’s, have been settled in a shootout.

“There’s definitely some fire there,” Azevedo said. ”Hopefully now we get to see them in the long run down the road and get a little payback.”

With that fire in the rivalry comes an increased amount of chippiness and physicality which the series saw no shortage of.

“Whenever you’re playing somebody and they know as soon as they touch the puck they’re going to get hit, it puts a little more pressure on them and they tend to make more mistakes,” Arroyo said.

Only four penalties, two on each team, were called in the game on Saturday night but the refs had to intervene after the second period ended to break up a scuffle and again blew their whistles after the Illini had won and the teams were shaking hands to stop some bantering.

“Certain things got out of hand at times but you have to stick up for your own and stick up for yourself,” Arroyo said.

The Cyclones provided a lot of the physicality but Azevedo said it was important that they stayed out of the extra curricular activities that occurred after the whistle was blown and kept a level head while maintaining an edge.

The Cyclones did keep an edge but were still unable to get the sweep that Fairman and his team feel like they played well enough to earn.

“I got a sense from [Illinois’] reaction that they felt pretty relieved that they stole an extra point out of this game,” Fairman said. “If I were the coach or the players, I would feel pretty fortunate [to have won.]”

In the last three outings, Cyclone Hockey has controlled the game but despite “dominating”, the Cyclones were only able to come away with two victories.

“It’s a tough one,” Azevedo said. “You’ve got to remember it but at the same time you’ve got to let it go.”

Arroyo shared a similar message towards moving forward.

“We’re going to keep this one in the back of our minds but definitely just move forward and focus on the next weekend,” Arroyo said.