The ISU hockey team is led to the ice by coach Al Murdoch, who will be entering his 44th season at Iowa State this fall. Murdoch is the only college-hockey coach with more than 1,000 wins to his name.

Last season was supposed to be a “rebuilding year” for the Cyclones as they had a lot of young talent join the team after losing five seniors from the year before.

Despite planning for a rebuilding year, the Cyclones made the ACHA national tournament after missing out on the tournament for the first time in team history the season prior and finished the season ranked No. 11.

The Cyclones were helped on the scoreboard last season in large part by their young talent — the top four scorers on the team were freshmen and sophomores.

Freshman J.P. Kascsak led the team in scoring with 25 goals and 19 assists for a total of 44 points. James Buttermore, also a freshman, scored 18 goals and had 23 assists for a total of 41 points and sophomore Jon Feavel had 20 goals and 20 assists for a total of 40 points last season.

After losing just one senior from last season — former captain Brian Rooney — the Cyclones have a lot of the same young talent coming back for the 2012-13 season.

The Cyclones play their home games Friday and Saturday nights at the Ames/ISU Ice Arena between September and March.