The time has come for the Iowa State women’s hockey team to take the ice. The Cyclones make their season debut Saturday and Sunday against the Bison of North Dakota State University.

Despite having a short roster, the Bison are poised to have a promising season as they return nearly their entire team from the 2018-2019 season. Just this past March, the Bison put on an impressive showing at Nationals, going 2-1, bringing their overall record to 13-10 for the season. Additionally, the Bison return five members of their team who accounted for eight of their eleven goals during the tournament. Sophomore, left-wing, Rachel Dorrff will be one to watch as she accounted for four goals at Nationals and fourteen throughout the entirety of her freshman campaign for the Bison.

On the other side of the puck, the Cyclones return several players from their 2018-2019 season. The Cyclone’s roster is dominated by juniors, all of whom are coming off a trip to Nationals. The Cyclones, however, had a rough week at the tournament, going 0-3 bringing their record to 8-9-2 for the season.

The Cyclones performed well on the road last season, going 6-3-1 during the regular season. Luckily, for the Cyclones, they return many of their top scorers. The goals for the Cyclones last season were fairly well distributed among the entire team. The player to watch? Kamryn Crawford who is coming off a 13-goal regular season in the 2018-2019 campaign.

The last time these two teams faced off was for last season’s season opener, which ended with the Bison taking home two wins by the scores of 5-0 and 3-1. Face-off is 7 p.m. on Saturday evening and 9 am Sunday morning in Fargo, North Dakota.