The ISU hockey team has yet to lose a game in regulation this season.

The No. 8 Cyclones (10-0-1-1) will begin Central States Collegiate Hockey League (CSCHL) play this Friday and Saturday night at home against No. 14 Illinois (5-4-0-0). The Cyclones are still in first place in the CSCHL while the Illini are in sixth.

One thing that was emphasized in practice by ISU coach Al Murdoch was scoring shorthanded goals.

“They’ve got to be able to visualize it to be able to do it,” Murdoch said. “Sometimes they make the game more complicated than it needs to be. If we’re shorthanded and you got the puck outside our blue line, I basically want our guys skating straight to the opponents’ net, because if you skate with speed and power, the only way they can stop you is by taking a penalty.”

Last season, the Cyclones swept the two-game home series against the Illini with a pair of shutouts, 1-0 the first game and 6-0 the second game. Last year’s goaltender Erik Hudson stopped a total of 47 shots through both games.

They Cyclones are getting a majority of their scoring from the underclassmen on the team so far this season. Out of the top 10 scorers on the team, five are freshmen and five are sophomores.

“Our team on one hand may seem young because we have freshmen and sophomores, but on the other hand all of them have junior experience,” Murdoch said. “A lot of them came in as 20 and 21 year olds. A 20- or 21-year-old freshman is not a young guy.”

Freshman forward J.P. Kascsak is the Cyclones’ second-leading scorer with six goals and six assists for a total of 12 points. He said that practice this past week has been much more specific for the start of CSCHL play.

Kascsak said that players and coaches have been talking about the games against Illinois from last season.

“We’ve been practicing things that they do in games this week in practice, so hopefully it will work out,” Kascsak said.

The Illini are coming off of a two-game sweep of Kent State at home with scores of 7-2 and 8-2.

The Cyclones face off against the Illini Friday night at 7:30 p.m. and Saturday night at 8:05 p.m. at the Ames/ISU Ice Arena.