It’s a battle of two of the league’s top teams.

One is undefeated and unanimously a number-one team, and the other is confident it can pull off a big upset. Although the stakes might not be as high for this weekend’s series between the Cyclones and Illinois, the storyline is similar to that of this year’s Super Bowl.

This weekend, top-ranked and undefeated Illinois (25-0) will face the No. 11 Cyclones (24-8) at the Ames/ISU Ice Arena on Friday and at Wells Fargo Arena on Saturday.

“We have been thinking about [this series] the entire year,” said sophomore defenseman Brent Cornelius. “We knew it was going to come up to this, we knew Illinois was going to be a good team – they just happen to be number one coming into this series, so it will be a big series.”

While the Cyclones have faced teams that are bigger and more physical then Illinois will be, they probably have not yet seen a team as fast as the Illini.

“Their coach scouts for a lot of fast players, they are somewhat big, too – but they scout for fast players whether they are small or big,” Cornelius said. “So, going into this series we are going to have to keep taking the body, keep shooting the puck. I know they have great goaltending, but as long as we can play with them in the corners, this is a smaller rink, so I think this will be a challenge for them.”

Their speed on the ice allows Illinois to get the puck into the net.

“Their offensive skills are great, they are small, they are fast, they move the puck – and that’s what makes them such a powerhouse,” freshman goalie Erik Hudson said.

In addition to a fast, potent offense, the Illini have very good goaltending. The Cyclones know they are going to have to work to score in this series.

“I think we have to just keep shooting the puck,” Cornelius said of the team’s strategy for beating Illinois goalie Mike Burda. “They played Ohio last week and what happened was Ohio had 17 shots the first game and got 0 goals, and Ohio had 27 shots the second game and got one goal. Hopefully we can get into that 30-35 shot range, whether it is from the point, a dump in on net, shot from the slots or the corners, anywhere – we are just going to try to rapid fire on them so, hopefully, they will crack or we can wear them out.”

Despite the success that Illinois has had this season, the Cyclones are still confident they can play with the Illini.

“They are definitely beatable, and we are in a position that I like us to be in – we are the underdog, we are the team that’s young, and we are growing and getting stronger every day,” said head coach Al Murdoch.

One advantage the Cyclones will have is their home ice. Not only will the crowd be a factor, but the size of the rink could be a factor as well. The Ames/ISU Ice Arena is 85 feet wide compared to Illinois’ home ice, which is 115 feet wide.

“I think it’ll be more along the lines of our style of hockey; our style tends to be more physical, and the smaller the rink, the more physical it becomes,” Murdoch said.

The Cyclones are in the midst of a 14-game winning streak of their own, but the best team they have played during that stretch was No. 21 Central Oklahoma. The Cyclones are currently 0-8 against top-10 competition.

“We’ve played those top 10 teams like Lindenwood, Ohio, Kent State,” Cornelius said. “We played those guys towards the beginning of the season. I think we have matured a lot better as a team, as a whole.”

Rather then getting caught up in their poor record against high-ranked competition, the Cyclones seem excited to use this game as a measuring stick.

“This will be a really good test for us, to see how far we have come from the beginning of the year,” Hudson said.