With the Cyclones coming into this weekend’s series on a four-game winning streak, they set their sights on Adrian College, a small college in the Detroit, Mich. area.

This will be the team’s first Division I contest. Iowa State has scored 31 goals in three of its last four games, routing St. Louis University 10-0 and 11-1 last weekend.

“The team played very well. Obviously, the goaltending was outstanding … There were two areas I was real pleased with [on offense]: shots on net and rebound shots. The other area was on special teams,” said coach Al Murdoch. “I think we had five power play goals this weekend and three or four shorthanded goals, so our special teams played very well.”

Freshman forward Jason Pacheco feels that growing team unity is a big reason for its success against St. Louis.

“I thought we were a stronger team; we played better together and I think our team had a lot more talent,” Pacheco said.

He said the Cyclones still needed to work on their hitting, despite the blowouts.

Sophomore defenseman Patrick Condon thought the blowout wins provided the team with the flexibility to be able to work on things.

“I thought it was a solid weekend,” Condon said. “It’s kind [of] nice having a big lead because that gives you the leniency to work on some new things while stepping up and working on things like gap control and stuff like that.”

Murdoch stressed that despite the Bulldogs’ unimpressive record, they can’t be overlooked.

“Adrian College is a very good school from the Detroit area, great coaching and they’ve really developed their program. This is only their second year in the ACHA Division I and they were a top 25 team last year. I know they will be working real hard to make the top 16 to reach Nationals. They know the best way to do that is to beat us, but were not up for that,” Murdoch said.

Adrian College brings a new set of challenges to the Ames/ISU Ice Arena.

“They are going to be a little bigger, a little faster, a little more physical and their shooting will be a little bit better,” Murdoch said.

The weekend before St. Louis, it took late game heroics to sneak by the Kansas Jayhawks after blowing them out the night before. The Cyclones agree it will be important that the team doesn’t let their guard down against the Bulldogs.

“It’s extremely important not to do that against Adrian; Kansas is a good team, I’m not taking anything away from them, but if we do that against Adrian, we’re probably going to lose Friday and Saturday,” Condon said.

Condon also mentioned that to keep the win streak going, the Cyclones have to build on every game, compete at every game, and not let any team sneak out with a win.