After a superb first half of the season, Cyclone Hockey is ready to translate that success into a potential run at the national championship.

With two road wins already under their belt, the Cyclones are preparing for a stretch of home games that will last five weeks, including games against Western Michigan University, Robert Morris College, University of Oklahoma, University of Central Oklahoma and Stony Brook University.  The Cyclones cannot get too comfortable with the upcoming stretch of home games because  each opponent is  currently ranked in the top 25 of the ACHA rankings.

Junior forward Derek Behrman said the team refuses to be intimidated by the rankings.

“I think we have a target on our back for sure, anytime a team comes in here and plays in front of these awesome fans, they get excited because they usually don’t see that in their barn, so they get pumped up by that,” Behrman said. “So anytime a team can come in here and steal a victory it’s a big bonus for them. We definitely have some tough games but hopefully we can just keep rolling and get some steam built up going into nationals.”

There won’t be much of a break because after the five week home stand, because the Cyclones will take a trip to the University of Illinois to play the number 1-ranked team in the nation on Feb. 20 and 21. The following week, the Cyclones will participate in the CSCHL Tournament in Dearborn, Michigan, before returning home March 6 and 7 to play North Dakota State University in what will be the season’s last home game.

The team understands that the next few weeks will not only act as solid ways to help improve its game and sharpness before the tournament, but also as a way to spread the message to the rest of the teams in the conference that the Cyclones are for real.

“We want to prove to everyone that we belong in the top 5 teams in the nation, and we’re going to have to do that by winning the rest of the games,” Lebler said.

Despite earning 22 victories in that first half, the Cyclones feel that if they want to make a case for the national championship, they will need to need to stay sharp and stay focused on the upcoming schedule and not let their guard down when things don’t go their way. Iowa State went into the break after losing to in-state rival Iowa, 4-3.

“There’s always things we can improve on. Obviously that loss to Iowa left a bitter taste in our mouths going into Christmas, but I think you have to be happy with our record — we only have five losses. Three of those losses I don’t think we should have had,” Behrman said. Behrman also expanded on those areas that the team could improve on. “We’d like to get our power play and penalty kill clicking better. We need to play better on our own end, I think we’re giving up too many goals still, we just need to tighten up.”

Players and coaches don’t seem to be looking ahead to the ACHA National Tournament.

They do agree that it is difficult for them to ignore that cloud hanging over their heads.

“It’s a little difficult [to ignore] with school starting up again but I think everybody’s excited about it more than anything. We have a good team here and we have a chance at winning nationals so I think everyone’s a little excited about these next couple of months,” said  sophomore forward Mike Lebler.

Coach Al Murdoch said he expects his team to stay focused and not lose sight of the ultimate goal to win a championship.