Cyclone Hockey narrowly defeated the Robert Morris Eagles in a shootout by the score of 4-3 in its last Central States Collegiate Hockey League series, splitting the series.

It wasn’t enough, however, to move the team out of last place in the league standings.

The Cyclones’ loss the previous night combined with an Illini win doomed Cyclone Hockey to last place regardless of the result in the final game of the series. The Cyclones will now have to play a play-in game to advance in the CSCHL tournament.

After having a hard time on the power play Feb. 6, the other end of the special teams’ spectrum had trouble in the first period. The Cyclones’ penalty kill conceded a goal from Ben Boukal when he shot it through traffic and beat goaltender Scott Ismond. 

Ismond stopped 11 of the 12 shots he faced to keep the score at 1-0 going into the first intermission.

The No. 10 Cyclones (15-12-5) came back in a hurry after Andrew Carlson notched his first goal as a Cyclone 41 seconds into the second period. The No. 6 Eagles (27-5-1) answered back six minutes later with a Derek Diaz shot from the left of the left face-off circle. The score remained 2-1 going into the final intermission.

Cyclcone Hockey assistant captain Nate Percy took the game into his own hands in the third period. He tallied two goals in the final period to put his team up and in a position to grab a win and a split in the series.

But Derek Diaz saved the game for the Eagles, scoring his second goal with 23 seconds left in regulation to the send the 3-3 game to an overtime.

With the overtime failing to determine a winner, the game went into a shootout and with it came a win for the Cyclones in four rounds.

Cyclone Hockey will take on the Illiana Blackbirds at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 13 at the Ames/ISU Ice Arena for its last series before the CSCHL tournament.