The Ames/ISU Ice Arena was filled with sounds of players getting slammed into the boards, getting checked hard and plenty of whistles last weekend.

Cyclone Hockey wrapped up a two-game series against the Missouri State Ice Bears on Saturday. On the surface, it looked like the Cyclones skated right past the Ice Bears, winning both games, 7-3 and 8-0. But looking a little deeper, the weekend was a tale of both fire and ice. 

A combined 21 penalties were called in the first game, resulting in 50 combined minutes spent in the penalty box during the 60-minute contest. The second game had even more, with 23 penalties resulting in 49 minutes in the penalty box.

The Cyclones had eight penalties in the first game compared with 13 from the Ice Bears.

“I’m a little disappointed we weren’t more disciplined but it’s hard, you got to be able to protect yourself,” said coach Jason Fairman after the first game.

The Ice Bears played a physical brand of hockey, often times being the aggressor.

They would sometimes square up to a Cyclone afterward, ready to fight before a referee would skate in to make sure nothing escalated. This resulted in coinciding penalties.

“A lot of the penalties were coincidentals that we can’t necessarily control,” Fairman said. “You got to try to control the game, so the referee is gonna call it on both sides. We should have had more power-play opportunities than they did, just by the way they play the game.”

The physicality was right up sophomore Jake Uglem’s alley, though.

“I’m a [defenseman], and I’m a bigger guy too,” the 6-foot-1-inch, 215-pound Uglem said. “Not so much a skill guy, but I like getting physical.”

Junior Preston Blanek is even bigger than Uglem at 6 feet 4 inches and 220 pounds. He said he enjoyed banging some bodies around, too.

Blanek also started the scoring for the Cyclones at the 6:57 mark in the first period. The Cyclones and Ice Bears traded goals throughout the game until the end of the third, when the Cyclones finished with a scoring flurry.

“It was nice to have that first one go in, but I knew all the other guys were going to bring some goals also,” Blanek said. “It was nice that kind of toward the end, after they started taking more penalties, it was nice we were able to quiet them down a little bit by scoring some goals.”

The Cyclones carried the momentum they gained from the end of the first game into the beginning of the second in the weekend series.

“We knew what we had to do right away mentally,” said freshman forward Tony Uglem. “They were a team we really wanted to beat. It wasn’t tough to get going for this game. … It was definitely fresh in our memories just from last night. We wanted to put it to them early and often, and we were able to do that.”

The Cyclones scored six goals in the first period of the second match. Tony scored one goal, then it was older brother Jake’s turn to light the lamp.

“It was fun, 6-0, or whatever it was after the first,” Tony said. “I mean, they got two shots. That was total domination. That wasn’t a good hockey team, so it’s hard to gauge. But they had a good goaltender.”

The Cyclones were ranked No. 7 in a poll released by the American Collegiate Hockey Association. The Ice Bears were only receiving votes to be ranked.

After the first period, things started to get chippy.

The Cyclones had seven penalties in the second period compared with just two from the Ice Bears, much to the bewilderment of Fairman.

“I don’t know how we got all the penalties, we had the puck the whole time,” Fairman said. “[Missouri State] did this last week; they did it this week. It was an embarrassment. This organization better figure this out, because I tell you what, teams won’t play them if this is how they are going to operate.

“That was an embarrassment, an absolute embarrassment.”

The Cyclones had 12 penalties in this game, while the Ice Bears finished with 11.

Tony was sent to the penalty box in the third period after a scuffle near center ice with the Ice Bears’ James DeMarco.

“I think we took the [physicality] pretty well,” Tony said. “It got a little chippy there but for the most part, we kept our edge. Protecting our teammates is basically what got us in trouble, so that’s a good thing. But I think we handled it well.”

The Cyclones were able to net two more goals in the third period after being held scoreless in the second — the first scoreless period of the season for Cyclone Hockey.

Goalie Matt Goedeke did his part throughout the game, earning his second career shutout as a Cyclone.

“[Getting a shutout] feels pretty good, but it feels better getting the win. We’re rolling pretty good right now,” Goedeke said.

Goedeke also noted the physicality from his end of the ice.

“Tight net down there,” Goedeke said. “It’s real physical, especially in the third, they weren’t taking anything. They were unhappy with obviously the score on their part, so they were doing what they could trying to get back at us physically.”

Normally a coach would be upset after getting blown out. However, Ice Bears coach Bob Bucher was more perturbed than normal, refusing to shake the referees’ hands.

He also didn’t shake Fairman’s hand until Fairman reminded him.

“I’ve never seen that before,” Fairman said. “This guy, I don’t know what his background is. How do you not know to shake the other coach’s hand? I talked to him before the game, before the series started on Friday, so he knew who I was, there’s no confusing that — then pretended like he didn’t know. It was an embarrassment.

“I signed a two-year contract with these guys, we go down there and play them next year down there.”

The Ice Bears were a Division II team last year, but made the jump to Division I this season, so they are lacking skill.

“We heard they were physical,” Fairman said. “When you don’t have the skill, you have to be physical. That’s their game.”