After a hard-fought game, the Cyclones and the Illini were heading into overtime tied at one. The Cyclones had a one-goal lead entering the third period, but it was erased after the Illini beat Matt Cooper, who was having an extraordinary night.

With all of that in the past, the Cyclones had an overtime period to look forward to. It was win or go home. 

A little less than three minutes into overtime, Illinois took the puck to the back of the net  — normally a non-threatening position, but not the way the Cyclones’ season has been going. 

A seemingly harmless flick of the stick sent the puck, intended as a pass, off the back of Matt Cooper’s leg and into the net.

The Cyclones were going home.

That was the case when the No. 10 Cyclones (21-13-6) dropped a 2-1 overtime loss to the No. 13 Illini (22-15-1) in the first game of the Central States Collegiate Hockey League Tournament on Feb. 20. 

It may be fair to say that the Cyclones haven’t had the best of luck this season. And to some, that may be an understatement. 

“That goal epitomizes our season,” said Cyclone Hockey head coach Jason Fairman following the loss. “I’ve just never seen anything like this.”

But all of that could have been avoided. 

Late in the second period, Trevor Lloyd and Nate Percy crashed hard to the net. Corey Sellers sent a puck to the center of the ice that deflected off Lloyd and into Percy’s skate. Percy’s skate ended up knocking the puck into the net. 

The referee was quick to wave off the goal, stating that Percy intentionally kicked it into the net. The rule states that a puck can hit off a skate and into the goal if it was unintentional, but if deemed an intentional kick, the referee can disallow the goal.

Just more bad luck for the Cyclones. 

“It’s hard to believe that the ref thought that it was a kicking motion when my skate never left the ice or had a distinct kicking motion,” Percy said. “But you can’t do anything about it. It was kind of unfortunate that it affected the game’s outcome.”

But even on the host Illini’s ice, which is nicknamed the “Big Pond” because of its larger-than-Olympic sheet of ice, the Cyclones took positives from the loss. 

And with the American Collegiate Hockey Association Tournament only two weeks away, the team can take solace in that fact. 

“As a team, we haven’t hit our peak. We haven’t hit our top potential,” said captain Mike Dopko. “Things are going in the right direction. And if the team keeps working hard like we have, we have a good chance of hitting our peak come nationals.”

The Cyclones outshot the Illini 33-30 and Matt Cooper, who returned from Spain, played marvelously by bailing out the team multiple times during the course of the game.  

The loss, combined with the positives, gives the Cyclones motivation heading into the final stretch of the season. 

“[The loss] was disappointing for sure, but luckily it’s not nationals [and] it’s not the end of the season,” Dopko said. “We can take that disappointment and turn it around to use it as fuel to work hard the next two weeks. If we are optimistic, those hard games [and] bad bounces will come our way.”