It all comes down to this.

The Central States Collegiate Hockey League regular season championship will be determined when Iowa State travels to Champagne to face the University of Illinois.

It is between Iowa State and Lindenwood for the CSCHL regular-season champion, and for the Cyclones, this weekend offers many possible scenarios that could determine who wins title.

“If Lindenwood sweeps their series and we sweep our’s, Iowa State will be the regular season league champions,” assistant coach Bryan Wierson said. “We need four points, meaning we won one and lost one, means we would tie Lindenwood for the championship. So there’d be co-champions. We would then move to head-to-head competition and all that would mean is that we would get the number-one seed in the league tournament.”

If Iowa State were to get swept by Illinois, however, and Lindenwood wins at least one game, then Lindenwood earns the league champion outright.

For all of the players, this would be their first-ever regular-season championship. However, this weekend is shaping up to be a battle of depth. Iowa State is playing three players short due to the University Games and could potentially be playing four short depending on the status of freshman defenseman Brody Toigo, who Wierson said is still questionable.

Illinois on the other hand, will also be playing short handed, as it sent five players to China for the University Games as well.

Junior forward Brad Krueger believes his team will still be able to compete against Illinois this weekend because of the team’s depth. Krueger singled out sophomore forward Chris Mackay as one of the players who the team will look to fill in the holes.

Defensively, Iowa State will be looking to stop a very strong Illinois offense that has been averaging five goals per game since the winter break. Due to this, Iowa State has been forced to practice different scenarios.

“There’s been a lot of game situations,” senior forward Bill Adolph said. “Real intense scrimmages like three on three, practicing face-offs, working on competing a lot in practices, competition between lines.”

The team’s mental preparation has been key for this weekend’s series. For a good majority of the young team, this will be the biggest series they have played in.

“We started thinking about this weekend right after we got done with Robert Morris,” Adolph said. “As soon as the buzzer ended third period I think we started talking about Illinois in the locker room right after the game. It’s always an intense week because we have such great rivalry with Illinois but now we’re playing for us and hardware and it’s just something that is really special. And for a guy like me with only a handful of games left, it’s pretty cool to be playing for something with meaning.”

Sophomore forward Cort Bulloch is currently the only captain left on the team. Bulloch believes the added pressure of winning a regular championship will drive this team.

“I think it’s a great motivational tool,” Bulloch said. “We pride ourselves in the fact that we are in this position to win and I think it’s a huge motivational tool, going into Illinois, to push us. I don’t think anyone in the room sees it as pressure, I think it’s more springboard, being able to beat Illinois at Illinois.”