After three weekends in a row at home, the Cyclone hockey team will take its first road trip of the season to face off with top-ranked Lindenwood University.

“It’s a little different playing on the road,” said junior defenseman Brady Irwin. “Lindenwood doesn’t get as big of a crowd as we get so it’s not as bad as you would think. Ames is a tough place to play compared to some of the places we go on the road.”

Last season, Iowa State split the series 1-1 with Lindenwood with the loss coming in a shoot out.

Lindenwood went on to win the ACHA Championship.

“When we played them last year, we played them really well,” said coach Al Murdoch. “I think we have the ability to do the same thing this year. It’s just a matter of playing flawless hockey.”

Both teams are yet to lose a game and Lindenwood is coming off of a sweep of No. 2 Illinois.

“It’s going to be a battle,” Irwin said. “It’s something we’ve been looking forward to since we got our schedule last year.”

The Cyclones’ offense will be challenged during these two games. Lindenwood has given up only nine goals in seven games.

“We will have to play a full 60 minutes, we can’t miss any assignments, we have to play hard and basically just play our game,” Irwin said. “We definitely have to be physical with them.”

Throughout the first three games, the Cyclones’ power play and penalty killing has played a big role in scoring goals.

Lindenwood is just as dangerous, or even better, on special teams.

“We can’t take any penalties because Lindenwood beat Illinois with the power play,” Murdoch said. “We also have to be sharp when we have the power play because they scored short-handed goals against Illinois.”

Lindenwood is led in goals by four different players, all with four goals, and has four players with more than 10 points.

“They didn’t graduate a lot from last year and they had a good recruiting year, so they’re pretty deep,” Murdoch said.

The Cyclones have five players with more than 10 points.

 This, however, could be attributed to the competition Iowa State has played so far, and the fact that the Cyclones have already scored 54 goals this season.

“We’ve been playing pretty good teams, but they’re not ranked teams,” Murdoch said.  “Now we’re playing the number one ranked team in the nation.”

The goaltending for the Cyclones will also have to keep up with strong play in the net if they hope to keep Lindenwood from scoring goals. Between all three goalies, Iowa State has allowed only eight goals with each goalie not allowing more than three goals.

“When you’re playing a team that’s the defending champion, everyone just tries to focus on the little things and has to try that much harder,” Irwin said.

Iowa State will hit the ice at 7:30 p.m. on Friday and 4 p.m. on Saturday in Wentzville, Missouri.