After a hard-fought shootout loss in Friday night’s action, Cyclone Hockey was looking to bounce back and get a split with a tough Central Oklahoma squad on the road.

The first period saw a similar start as Friday night, with both teams starting slow. The Bronchos saw a couple of good chances near the end of the period, but failed to capitalize as Nikita Kozak started where he left off in net. Central Oklahoma got penalized with a minute left for goalie interference, but the Cyclones couldn’t seem to get anything going — even when a man up.

Even the best goaltending needs offensive help in order to succeed, and the Cyclones were unable to produce for Kozak.

Cyclone Hockey was able to even up the shots in the second period (20-19), but the Cyclones were not able to find the back of the net. Vitalii Mikhailov, however, continued his scoring ways, getting one past Kozak with about 10 minutes left in the period to put the Bronchos up by one heading into the third. The goal came on the power play due to a penalty by Jake Joyaux.

A quiet and quick third period yielded no results for the Cyclones, only a few shots here and there. Despite pulling Kozak for the final 30 seconds, Cyclone Hockey was shutout.

Kozak was the team’s most valuable player this weekend, only giving up one regulation goal while seeing over 45 shots over the course of the two games. The Cyclones will be back home next weekend to take on the University of Illinois.