The No. 12 ranked Maryville Saints hockey team traveled to Ames, Iowa for their first road trip of the season this past weekend. As a founding program of the ACHA 30 years ago, Iowa State is a perennial powerhouse in the ACHA – having teams in all three men's divisions and one at the women's 2 division. The Cyclones are currently ranked No. 4 nationally at the Men's 1 level. 
 
On Friday, the Saints looked like the away team coming off a long bus ride. After the first period, Maryville was down 2-0. Once the bus legs wore off, the Saints tied the game at two goals apiece in the second period with goals scored by Jared Viggers and Lucas Adams. The Cyclones answered right back late in the second to go up 3-2. The final period was a back-and-forth affair with both the Saints and Cyclones having prime scoring chances. With 1:32 left in the third, head coach John Hogan called a timeout to add an extra player in hopes of tying the game. Maryville had several scoring chances with the man advantage, but Iowa State finally cleared the puck scoring an empty net goal with 10 seconds left to secure the game. Goaltender Ed Coffey made 24 saves in the 4-2 loss. 
 
Saturday was another closely contested match up. The Saints went up first with Christian Alvegran scoring a powerplay goal from Jaxon White and Trevor Henson. The Cyclones answered with a goal of their own three minutes into the second period off a broken corner play. Both teams showed poise and structure as the 60-minute regulation time wined down. With the teams tied 1-1, the Saints and Cyclones played a five-minute 3-v-3 overtime to decide the contest. No goal was scored in overtime resulting in a 3-man shootout. Iowa State scored on their first attempt while the Saints missed on all three of their chances resulting in a 2-1 shootout loss for Maryville. The shootout loss is recorded as a tie for ranking purposes. Goaltender Johnny Massara made some fantastic stops in the game, recording 37 saves.
 
The M1 Saints roll into the bulk of conference play with the next 15 games all against conference opponents. Maryville is one of six teams in the Midwest College Hockey Conference along with Illinois State, McKendree, Midland, Northern Illinois, and Waldorf. The Saints are back home this weekend with two rival conference games against Midland University. The puck drops at 5 p.m. Friday, Oct. 29, and 4 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 30, at the Maryville University Hockey Center.