For the second year in a row, the Huntsville Havoc will partner with the Cyclone Hockey team to hold one of its free agent camps in Ames.

The Huntsville Havoc, a Southern Professional Hockey team, will hold an evaluation camp for aspiring players to try out to make it to the team’s main training camp Friday and Saturday. 

The hockey team will play the Huntsville prospects in order for the prospects to have a chance to showcase their skills, as well as for the Cyclones to have an opportunity to prepare for the upcoming season.

The Cyclones will be playing against some “pretty darn good players,” said coach Al Murdoch. Murdoch said he is planning on playing nearly 30 different players during the weekend.

This will give Murdoch and the rest of the Cyclone coaching staff a good chance to evaluate their players while they are playing against top-notch competition.

“It’s always good to evaluate talent,” Murdoch said.

Along with getting prepared for the season and evaluating players, members of the team have voiced other goals for the exhibition games.

“It’s always good to play higher caliber teams; it’s a different style of hockey,” said Justin Wilkinson, senior defenseman and alternate captain. “We hope to learn a couple of things.”

Murdoch is excited to see the fan turnout for the games this year. He was pleased with the turnout last year and looks forward to seeing the fans again.

“I think we’ll have a pretty good crowd,” Murdoch said.

The games will be at 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday at the Ames/ISU Ice Arena. For the fans who cannot make it to the game, it will be streamed live online on the America One Network. There will be a link on the Cyclone Hockey Web page that will direct fans to the site.

Senior forward and alternate captain Derek Kohles said he is ready to get back on the ice.

“Just getting on the ice again and getting the season going,” Kohles said of what he is looking forward to. “It’s been a long time.”