The Cyclones will have a chance for revenge Friday night against the Golden Flashes of Kent State in their opening round of the annual Central States Collegiate Hockey League tournament. Iowa State faces Kent State at 7:30 p.m. at the Ames/ISU Ice Arena.

Iowa State was swept in the team’s regular season meeting at Kent State earlier in the season.

“We definitely owe them one,” senior forward Pete Majkozak said. “They’re a tough team to match up against, but we’re completely confident that we can take care of business.”

Iowa State, which has struggled at times to put the puck in the back of the net, will have to deal with arguably the best goalie in the nation, junior Ryan Gregory.

“He’s better with the puck than most skaters in this league,” Majkozak said. “He’s literally like an extra defender on the ice, which makes it really tough to execute our offense.”

Gregory has the ability to change teams’ game plans and the Cyclones are no different.

The Cyclones will have to skate the puck into the zone instead of dumping it into the zone, like they do with most of the other teams in the league.

The Golden Flashes and the Cyclones will become familiar foes by the end of the year, as the two teams will also play each other in the first round of the ACHA National tournament in Philadelphia.

Coming off a split against Minot State, the team has some things it needs to work on to advance in the Central States Collegiate Hockey League.

“We need to work on a little bit of everything,” coach Al Murdoch said. “That’s why we practice every day, so we can be as prepared as possible.”

The Cyclones will be without one of their key players, senior forward Brian Spring, who is out with a separated shoulder and hopes to play in Nationals in two weeks.

“I’m confident about our team’s ability against Kent State this weekend,” Spring said. “We’ve been playing well in practice all week and we learned some things against Minot State this past weekend, so we’ll be ready to go.”

One of the keys to victory will be the Cyclones playing the full 60 minutes.

There were instances in the game two loss to Minot State where the team didn’t finish plays as strongly as they needed to.

“Playing the full game is going to be key,” Majkozak said. “Not everybody did that as well as they needed to this past weekend. That’s something we definitely need to improve on this weekend.”

Iowa State suffered a close loss to Ohio in the finals of last year’s tournament with a third period letdown.

They are hoping their luck will change this year, as they have the home ice advantage.

“We have great fans,” Murdoch said. “The spirit of this town and its hockey fans never ceases to amaze me, and that gives us a definite advantage.”

Ohio returns as the top seed this year as it will play the No. 8 seed. Robert Morris, Illinois, Michigan-Dearborn, Lindenwood, and Western Michigan finish off the eight-team field. If the Cyclones advance against Kent State, they will play again at 7:30 p.m. Saturday.