Cyclone Hockey is determined to bounce back from a tough couple of weeks with a good showing at the Central State Collegiate Hockey League tournament.

The Cyclones will play in the opening game at 10 a.m. Friday in Champaign, Ill., and the tournament will conclude with the championship at 1 p.m. Sunday.

Cyclone Hockey will come into the series seeded fourth – the same seed as the Cyclones had last year when they made an improbable run to win the championship.

“I think the guys know that even though you are an underdog, we were seeded fourth last year, we won it, and we are capable of doing that again this year,” said coach Al Murdoch. “To do that, we have to play flawless hockey.”

The first team the Cyclones will face is fifth-seeded Kent State. The Cyclones played Kent State earlier this year and were swept, 4-3 and 6-3.

“Kent State is fast and they are good in the third period, but I think on this big surface we have the advantage for sure,” said sophomore forward Pete Majkozak.

That bigger surface Majkozak is referring to is the Illinois home ice, nicknamed “the big pond.” The arena is the biggest in the league.

“The big ice is going to favor the teams with the most speed, obviously,” said junior forward Mike Murtaugh. “It will put some of those faster teams in a little better opportunity. Illinois, because they play there, us, and Lindenwood has got a lot of speed too, so I think those three teams will be tough to beat in Illinois.”

Even though those three teams may have an advantage, that doesn’t mean the rest of the field doesn’t have a chance. Of the eight teams in the tournament, the top seven seeds have been invited to play in the 16-team national tournament.

The Cyclones feel this will be a good tune-up for that tournament. In fact, the experience might be even more valuable then getting the trophy.

“It is a big thing to win it, but obviously you don’t want to put all of your effort into this one thing. We have another tournament at the end of the season,” Murtaugh said. “Last year, we kind of had a poor performance [at the national tournament].”

The main thing the team will be looking to figure out before the national tournament is how to play in the third period.

“I think we need to just figure out that we need to play harder in the third period,” Murtaugh said. “We were up two goals the last three games and we kind of just gave up a little bit, took too many penalties and that kind of stuff cost us all three of those games. When we are up by two goals, we need to play like we are down two goals and I think we will be all right.”