The Cyclone hockey club is in playoff mode for the rest of the season.

This is what ISU hockey coach Al Murdoch has been telling his team all week and says that it was the difference in last weekend’s games against No. 3 Lindenwood, which the Cyclones lost.

“If the guys think they can play the way they have for the previous 15 or 18 weeks, it’s not going to work,” Murdoch said. “Lindenwood was in playoff mode already last weekend, we weren’t.”

This Friday and Saturday night Iowa State returns to the ice at home for a pair of games against No. 14 Central Oklahoma. Last season, the Cyclones swept the Bronchos in three games, two of which were at home.

Murdoch said Ames has very good, hard ice and that they should be one of the fastest teams in the country as a result. This week they have been going back to basics and working on speed drills in practice.

“Any time something doesn’t go your way, whether it’s an exam or hockey, losing games or whatever, you just have to get back to the basics,” said ISU captain Brian Rooney. “I think that’s what we’ve been trying to do all week in terms of skating, staying in great shape, we’re doing a lot of shooting and passing. A lot of stuff that people would see as very basic but in the grand scheme of things they really help you down the stretch.”

Last Saturday night at Lindenwood, Rooney had a hat trick against the Lions. The three goals on Saturday night give Rooney 11 this season. That ranks him fifth on the team. He is sixth in scoring overall this season with 23 points.

ISU defenseman and co-captain Justin Wilkinson will have a new defensive partner on the other side of the blue line this weekend. Shawn Crawford will be moving back from forward to take the place of Alec Wilhelmi, who broke his arm last Friday night.

“I played with him all last year so it’s comfortable,” Wilkinson said. “It’s obviously a little bit of a transition because you’re used to one guy but it doesn’t take long to get back in the old ways because we played well together last year, so there’s no reason we won’t this year.”

Rooney said that after this week, there is no doubt the Cyclones are in playoff mode and started that mode last Saturday night in a game they lost to Lindenwood 6-5.

The Cyclones take the ice this Friday and Saturday night against the Central Oklahoma Bronchos at the Ames/ISU Ice Arena. Friday night the puck drops at 7:30 p.m. and on Saturday the puck drops at 8:05 p.m.