The college hockey season is long. The first games are played in mid-September and the final games are played at the ACHA National Tournament in March.

It takes a lot for a player to have the privilege and the will to play in every game in a season. The ISU hockey team has six players who have played in all 39 games so far this season.

These “iron men,” as ISU coach Al Murdoch calls them, have also played more games than anyone else in the ACHA. The “iron men” include Jon Feavel, Justin Wilkinson, Chris Cucullu, Brian Rooney, Antti Helanto and Mike Dopko.

“They’re the ones that don’t miss practice and don’t miss games no matter what,” Murdoch said. “Sometimes I suspect that some of them may even have a slight injury, but they don’t tell any teammates, they don’t tell any coaches and they don’t even tell themselves. They just adjust their games slightly.”

One of the unique things about college hockey is that most players don’t play at the collegiate level right after high school. Most of them have to go through the junior leagues first, which often times includes 60-70 games, without school.

For most of the college players, they have to get used to balancing a full week of classes with the hockey season.

“It’s not quite as long as a junior season,” said Helanto, freshman defenseman. “The academic side is a big thing, it takes a lot of time. It’s something you don’t have in juniors or in the pros.”

Last season, Helanto played 45 regular season games and four playoff games for the Owatonna Express in the North American Hockey League.

Rooney, a senior captain, played both of his junior seasons while he was still in high school, so he did not have to adjust to the grind of hockey and school the same way everyone else does. As a senior, Rooney is the same age as most of the sophomores on the team.

“It was a little [easier], but it was the fact that college was always different because you have to do more on your own,” Rooney said. “It’s harder mentally than it is physically.”

As of this past Saturday, Rooney has played 150 games in a Cyclone jersey. Rooney and Murdoch both said it can be considered a “badge of honor” to play in every game in a season.

“It’s a marathon, not a race,” Rooney said.