The ISU hockey team is at practice for just one more week as it prepares for its final two-game set against its in-state rivals, the University of Northern Iowa Panthers, this weekend. This will be the final set for the Cyclone seniors.

The five Cyclone seniors include captain forward Cort Bulloch, forward Matt Cohn, goalie Erik Hudson, forward Mike Lebler, and forward Jordan Pascale.

“It’ll be a void in our program,” said coach Al Murdoch. “We’re graduating a lot.”

Mike Lebler has 48 points this year, Bulloch 30 points, Pascale 26 points, and Cohn has 16 points.

“That’s a lot of points off the scoreboard to be graduating,” Murdoch said. “All five seniors have excellent statistics.”

Goalie Erik Hudson leads the Central States Collegiate Hockey League with three shutouts and in minutes played.

“We’ll be encouraging other goaltenders to get at that level or higher to take us to a higher level in future years,” Murdoch said.

Bulloch and Lebler are the two seniors of the group who have played for Murdoch every semester for the past four years. The Cyclones’ captain, Bulloch, is trying to get used to the idea of graduating and leaving Cyclone hockey.

“It’s weird,” Bulloch said. “For four years I’ve been doing the same thing every day for a couple of hours each day, so it’s a little emotional but I’m getting through it.”

Hudson is hoping to start a professional career after college.

“It’s a dream of mine,” Hudson said. “I completed a dream already this year putting on a team USA jersey, but also, I’ve always wanted to play pro hockey.”

The Cyclones (23-17) have been at practice just like always working on a lot of fundamental things this week in preparation for UNI.

“This will give us the mythical championship of Iowa,” Murdoch said. “We beat Iowa in December, and now [to] beat UNI, it’ll give us a championship.”

Senior Night is at 8:30 p.m. Friday and the final game of the season is at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at the Ames/ISU Ice Arena.