After three periods of play, overtime, and a tied shootout, Illini head coach Nick Fabbrini looked past his top-10 goal scorers and tapped forward John Scully to take the last shot in Friday night’s shootout against No. 13 Iowa State.

Scully skated toward center ice, gaining control of the puck as he maneuvered down the right side of the Big Pond. Approaching the net, Scully faked to the goalie’s right side, drawing his opponent in the direction of the deke before finally slipping the puck past the goaltender’s off-balanced left side.

“There are a couple moves that I like to pull when I’m coming down the right side,” Scully said. “You got your forehand, you can go left side five-hole, you can bring it back on the back hand like I was able to do there. … The goalie bit on that first shot fake and I was able to kind of slide it back behind him.”

With that final penalty shot, the Illini sealed a 3-2 victory Friday and set the tone for the rest of the weekend. The Illini’s ability to win with depth led to a 5-0 shellacking of the Cyclones in Saturday’s finale.

The seven Illinois goals scored in regulation on the weekend came from six different players, three of which — Jacob Matysiak, John Scully and Ben Burbridge — are outside the top five goal scorers on the roster. Burbridge’s goal in the second period of Saturday’s game was the first of his career.

“It was a good example of everyone contributing,” Fabbrini said following the Illini’s 5-0 Saturday night victory. “Whether you’re playing 25 minutes a game or five or six minutes a game. We had everyone in the lineup contributing, staying positive on the bench … that’s all stuff that goes a long way. When you’re in tight games at league and nationals, that positivity … will keep you in games.”

Also keeping the Illini in the game was the timing of the goals. Four of the Illini’s seven regulation goals came either within the first four or last four minutes of the given period.

“Fabbrini has been talking about what he calls momentum goals, and those are goals you get in the first minutes of the period and the last minutes of the period,” Scully said after Friday’s win. “It kind of went against us at Lindenwood (when Illinois lost 7-4 last Friday) … it does play a factor and for us to get ahead tonight it was definitely a big plus.”

While the No. 9 Illini spread the puck around on offense, their defense was equally impressive. Goaltender Nick Clarke allowed only two regulation goals during Friday’s game and shut out the Cyclones on Saturday, chalking up his third shutout of the year.

Assisting Clarke was a rejuvenated defense that was perfect on the penalty kill for the weekend.

“I think that everyone is finally buying into our system of blocking shots and putting in 100 percent effort into every shift,” Burbridge said. “Last Saturday we played Lindenwood … we had everyone selling out, everyone going as hard as they possibly could just playing like it was their last game and we carried that momentum through here and it’s been working.”

Patrick can be reached at [email protected] and on Twitter @_PatrickKelley_.