Earlier this season, the Iowa State hockey team faced off with Central States Collegiate Hockey League rival Illinois and came away with a weekend split, losing 3-2 on Friday and winning 4-1 on Saturday. Illinois is the only opponent the Cyclones will play twice in the regular season and the Cyclones expect this time around to be close.

In the loss earlier this season, Iowa State took a 1-0 lead into the locker room at the end of the first period. In the second period, Iowa State let the game slip away by allowing Illinois to score three times and the Cyclones went on to lose 3-2.

The following night, Iowa State put together an impressive performance and beat the Illini 4-1.

In those games, Illinois played a very fast and physical two games. With a bigger sheet of ice to play on this week, Iowa State believes it can still play its trademark physical style of play.

“Obviously, we’re going to be a lot more physical than them,” said junior forward Cort Bulloch. “Every series we make a goal to be the leader in hits and all other categories. We’ll definitely be the toughest team on the ice this weekend.”

Iowa State will travel to Champaign, Ill. this weekend in hopes of improving its standing in the rankings and hopefully move up the seeding in the CSCHL Tournament in Ames.

The ice arena is a slightly bigger than the one in Ames, which the Cyclones will need to adjust to.

“We have to get used to the ice surface right away,” said freshman forward David Kurbatsky. “Some of us have experience playing there and some of us don’t so the first period will be huge in order for us to get used to the surface.”

Senior forward Tom Connell, who has 11 goals and 29 assists this season, leads Illinois. The Illini are coming off a disappointing split with Robert Morris giving them their fourth loss of the season and the first loss since the one in Ames. Those losses coming at the hands of first ranked Lindenwood, Iowa State and Robert Morris.

“They’ll be flying and they like to play well in front of their home fans,” said coach Al Murdoch.

The Cyclones will enter this game with a record of 20-8-3 with six losses on the road. Murdoch has confidence that his team can pull off a couple of wins this weekend to bring them to 22 wins on the year.

“I’ve been around long enough that I know that Cyclone hockey, most of the time, plays better on the road than they do at home so now it’s time to show that by beating Illinois,” Murdoch said.

Getting these two wins are important for the Cyclones because with the tournament less than a month away, they need all the wins they can up until then.

“I’ve never won on their ice and I know the seniors haven’t either so that’s something we want to do before we end our career here at Iowa State,” Bulloch said.