Every Division I ACHA hockey team is competing to win a national championship, a goal that starts with making the national tournament at the end of the year.

In the 2010-11 season, the ISU hockey team missed the national tournament for the first time in team history with a finish ranked No. 18 with a 26-17-0 record, while 16 teams went instead.

Last season, the ACHA switched to a 20-team format that will continue. The No. 14 ISU hockey team expects to be there when Robert Morris hosts the national tournament in Bensenville, Ill.

“I think the two wins against Iowa and the win against No. 6 Oklahoma put an exclamation mark on Iowa State,” said ISU coach Al Murdoch. “We’ll be in that play-in round that first day, but that’s where I think it’s to our advantage … to get the butterflies and everything else taken care of.”

Akin to last weekend when they beat No. 6 Oklahoma, the Cyclones have shown all season long that they are capable of beating some of the best teams in the country. However, they have had some trouble winning consecutive games against these teams.

Iowa State has split with No. 4 Robert Morris, No. 9 Illinois, No 16 Central Oklahoma and No. 5 Ohio. It also lost two one-goal games including once in overtime against No. 2 Arizona State.

The ACHA National tournament is a single-elimination tournament. If the Cyclones want to be there in the end, they will have to string together consecutive wins.

Despite losing to Central Oklahoma last weekend, Murdoch thinks that it showed that they can win back-to-back games since they won five out of six periods throughout the weekend. Senior ISU forward David Kurbatsky said consistency is something they’ve been struggling with this season.

“I think we need to find a way to get our minds focused for each game and for each shift,” Kurbatsky said. “I feel like it’s easy for us to get sidetracked.”

Kurbatsky referred to last weekend’s game against Central Oklahoma, where they had the lead going into the third period and gave up four goals, ending in a loss.

“That’s just an example of where we mentally got sidetracked,” Kurbatsky said. “That’s something we need to focus on as a team and that’s something we have been focusing on.”