Hockey preview: Huntsville Havoc to bring professional-level challenges to Cyclones
Photo: William Deaton/Iowa State Daily
Cyclone forward Mark Huber and Ohio forward Jonathan Pietramala watch the puck as the referee drops it into play during the game Jan. 12 at Ames/ISU Ice Arena. The Cyclone hockey team was victorious over the Ohio Bobcats in the first of two games in a dramatic overtime win with a final score of 2-1. Cyclones are scheduled to play the Bobcats once more on Jan. 13.
September 20, 2013
The Huntsville Havoc’s tryout team travels to Ames to face the Cyclones on the ice this weekend.
The two teams will meet on Friday and Saturday, Sept. 20 and 21, as Cyclone Hockey kicks off its second week of the season.
“The Huntsville Havoc is a pro team in the Southern Professional Hockey League,” said team captain Mark Huber. “This is actually one of their tryout teams, though. So this is a camp for them.”
Since this is Huntsville’s tryout team its players will be competing against the Cyclones for more than just a win. Scouts are attending the game to evaluate Huntsville’s prospects to see if they are a good fit for the pro squad.
Even though they are not on the professional hockey team yet, Huntsville’s prospects still have a lot of hockey experience. This has ISU coach Al Murdoch believing the two games this weekend will be fast and physical.
“Their players will tend to be a little bit bigger than what we went against last week,” Murdoch said. “They will tend to be a little bit faster and a little stronger because they have been around the hockey circles for a while.”
With the Cyclones facing a hard-hitting team, puck protection has been stressed this week in practice.
“I know one thing that the coaches are going to stress on is puck protection,” Huber said. “So really, it’s just kind of keep your head up and protect yourself.”
The Cyclones hope to be better than they were last week when it came to “dumping the puck.”
“Dumping the puck is layman’s terms for don’t ice it,” Huber said. “It may sound really simple, but we actually struggled against it this weekend.”
These fundamentals are what ISU assistant coach Jason Fairman hopes to instill in his players for the upcoming games this weekend.
“In the early season you have to go back to the basics,” Fairman said. “We are renewing systems. It is a lot of review right now.”
The Cyclones will look to wear down Huntsville, similar to what they did to Waldorf last week by getting fresh legs on the ice as quickly as possible.
“I thought last weekend one of the major differences between us and Waldorf was that we played four lines and three and a half sets of defense. They played three lines and two and half sets of defense,” Murdoch said. “So we gradually wore them down. That will be are goal against Huntsville as well.”
