Ames Little Cyclones Hockey Clinches Tournament Position

On Friday night with much of the state under a winter weather advisory, the Ames Little Cyclones Hockey Team and staff was on a bus to Dubuque preparing to play a two game road series against the Dubuque Devils on Saturday and Sunday, in the Midwest High School Hockey League.

Needing just one win or one Dubuque loss to clinch their first State Tournament appearance in nearly a decade the Little Cyclones kept a close eye on the score of the game that Dubuque was playing in Waterloo.

At about 8 p.m. the word came across the bus that Waterloo had beaten Dubuque and that our spot in the tournament was secure, and the focus would now turn to our own series with Dubuque and keeping our focus on winning the two games in front of us and to continue our unbeaten streak over the last few weeks.

On Saturday afternoon a slow start and some untimely penalties including a 5 minute major penalty and game ejection against Ames saw the Little Cyclones down 1-0 going into the Third Period and still charged with the task of killing the 5 minute penalty. In the third period Ames leading scorer Alex Thompson got the Little Cyclones started with a short handed goal to tie the game at 1 and the Little Cyclones never looked back. Ames junior Spencer Oh notched the game winner a few minutes later to give Ames a 2-1 lead and then Thompson added an empty net goal with about a minute to go complete the 3-1 come from behind win. A stingy Ames defense allowed just 16 shots and senior goalie Jake Petsch stopped all but one recording 15 saves.

On Sunday afternoon with a sweep on their minds the Little Cyclones came out flying and netted 4 first period goals and never looked back, on their way to a 7-1 win. Ames Junior Mark Wishman recorded a hattrick (3 goals), Thompson added 2 and Ames Junior Paul Fritzell added 2 goals, while Ames Junior Spencer Oh had 4 assists. Another great performance by the Ames defense- lead by senior Co- Captain Dalton Weber allowed Dubuque just 14 shots and Junior Goalie Orion Boylston stopped all but one shot recording 13 saves.

With the weekend sweep the Little Cyclones (14-15-2) push their winning streak to 6 games heading into the regular season finale on Friday night in Des Moines against the current number 1 team in the Western Division the Des Moines Oakleafs. The puck drops for the Varsity Game at 8pm in Urbandale at the Metro Ice Sports Complex.

The Little Cyclones will then take the final weekend of the regular season off before opening up the first round of the MHSHL State Tournament at the Ames/ISU Ice Arena on Friday Febuary 24th. More information on the state tournament schedule will be forth coming as the seeding and pairings are announced.

JV notes: The Ames Little Cylcones JV Team still has an outside chance at getting into the JV tournament as they tied Dubuque 4-4 on Saturday and lost 6-2 on Sunday with the final two goals being recorded with the Ames Goalie pulled. Ames Jv remains in 4th place in the east holding onto the last spot, but will have to get help from Cedar Rapids in the last two weeks of the season to hold onto the final spot.