The Cyclones are preparing for their final home games of the season and their last series before the national tournament.

No. 10 Cyclone Hockey will play Minot State on Friday and Saturday at the Ames/ISU Ice Arena.

Although Minot State is unranked, head coach Al Murdoch believes the team will prove to be tough competition.

“The reports that I have gotten from Oklahoma and a few other teams is that they are a good team, very solid – it’s just that they didn’t schedule enough Division I competition to get ranked,” Murdoch said.

The Cyclones will gain the benefit of playing a quality opponent, which Murdoch thinks will help get them ready for their first-round game.

“I think Minot State will compare very similarly to Ohio,” Murdoch said. “They are big, mature, physical – they are men.”

The Cyclones expect to be pumped up to play this weekend.

“We got that feeling of failure in our stomachs, so that is kind of motivating us,” said freshman forward Cort Bulloch. “We have one more shot at nationals – otherwise, this season will have been for nothing.”

While the Cyclones will have all hands on deck for the game Friday, they will be missing three of their top players Saturday, sophomore forward Brian Spring and sophomore defensemen and co-captains Adam Mueller and Brent Cornelius will head to Ohio to play in the conference All-Star Game.

“It brings great positive recognition to Iowa State University,” Murdoch said. “When it comes to the voting, coaches are not allowed to vote for their own players, so to have three of our players voted on by the opposing coaches in the Central States League is huge. We only had two guys last year that were All-Stars. This year I was hoping to get one. I thought we would be lucky to get two, so to get three is huge.”

Besides bringing well-earned recognition to the team as a whole, the honors are doubly good for the players selected.

“It is huge, it’s a really big honor – you work really hard all year and you do the best you can,” Mueller said. “To get the recognition is nice – it brings the spotlight to the team and the more players we can get to go there, it helps out everybody.”

The players going to the All-Star Game, however, will leave the Cyclones a little shorthanded on Saturday.

“I don’t think [missing the game on Saturday] will do too much,” Mueller said. “Obviously, we like to think we help out, so it could affect them a little bit – but we are only three players, that’s not even a line.”

Bulloch is confident that the Cyclones have other players that can take their place.

“It just means that the other guys have to step up and fill in,” Bulloch said. “Guys get injured, and hurt and so we always have to have guys stepping up.”