Few teams have had the confidence to publicly call out the Cyclones with Iowa State’s winning tradition on its home ice.

Minot State, out of Minot, N.D., feels confident enough that they can not only beat the Cyclones, but crush them on ISU ice as they put in a letter that was taped to the Cyclones locker room door this week.

“Not many people call us out,” said sophomore forward Cody Steele. “It gives us a little extra confidence and it puts a little bit of a chip on our shoulder.”

The Beavers bring a similar style of play to that of the University of Manitoba, who the Cyclones played a exhibition series against earlier in the year. Minot State travels to Ames this weekend to face the Cyclones on Friday, Feb. 12 and Saturday, Feb. 13.

Iowa State sits at No. 5 in the American Collegiate Hockey Association, while Minot State is at No. 9 — but the teams are close in the power rankings.

“They will be a lot like us,” said coach Al Murdoch. “Half their team is Canadian and the other half is part pit-bull. They’re a tough, mean, hard hitting, hockey team.”

Minot State, like most opponents, will come in and be physical with the Cyclones and will also bring sniper-like scorers who know how to bury the puck from all distances and various locations around the net.

The Beavers also bring a strong power play and will have four balanced lines.

Balance has been one of the staples of the Iowa State program season after season and is the reason Iowa State doesn’t usually have individual players or lines leading the ACHA in any of its statistical categories.

Despite the lack of scoring from his own team in recent weeks, Murdoch will make sure his team focuses on defense.

“If you can play defense, you can win national championships,” Murdoch said. “If you try to win a 9-8 game in a shootout, not many teams win national championships doing that.”

The Cyclones’ difficulty of putting pucks in the net hasn’t come from lack of effort.

“We’ve outshot teams a lot to a little in most games,” said junior forward Chris Mackay. “Those shots haven’t been smart shots though, we need to get more chances around the net and bury them while making sure we take smarter shots.”

The Central States Collegiate Hockey League tournament is just around the corner and a team like the Beavers provide a good tune-up opponent for the host Cyclones.

“It enables us to bring our game up to a higher level,” Mackay said. “I think, going into the league tournament will keep our feet moving from that. We’re not going to overlook this weekend. We’ve got to make a statement to the other teams around the nation that have lost to them.”