After dropping three of its last four games, Cyclone Hockey players called a closed-door meeting earlier this week to get refocused and set their priorities straight.

Now a home series against No. 10 Oakland University looms this weekend for the Cyclones, and the team has practiced hard this week, concentrating on the basics.

“It’s a matter of discipline, focus and just simple things like getting the puck out of the zone on special teams,” said coach Al Murdoch. “This is so important, but sometimes the guys take it too lightly, and they need to recognize that at this level of college hockey, we need to do this better.”

Cyclone Hockey has put the spotlight on its special teams play this week, citing it as a recent Achilles’ heel, most notably in last Saturday’s 5-3 loss to Arizona State. Inconsistent special teams play by Cyclone Hockey accounted for three of the five goals scored by the Sun Devils in the game.

“Special teams are what sunk us against Arizona State when they beat us on two power play goals and a penalty shot,” Murdoch said. “If you eliminate those three goals, we probably win the game.”

Cyclone Hockey managed to salvage the first of its two home contests last weekend, defeating Arizona State 7-4 on Friday night.

Despite its recent struggles, No. 5 Cyclone Hockey (6-2-2) has continued to keep high morale at practice and is focused on taking care of business against the Golden Grizzlies this weekend.

“Practice has been very enthusiastic and very positive this week,” said Allen Raushel, senior in industrial engineering. “Everybody knows what they need to do, and I think the team has their heads in the right place.”

After defeating the University at Buffalo 4-2 in its lone game last weekend, Oakland (6-2-1) brings a five-game unbeaten streak into Ames. Both its losses came at the hands of the University of Illinois, which boasts an 8-0 record and will most likely move into the top spot of the next ACHA Division 1 Rankings.

“Oakland is a very good team, and we will have to be quicker against them than we have been through the first five weekends,” Murdoch said. “Speed is going to be very important both defensively and offensively, because if we’re slow on offense, we won’t be able to finish off plays, and if we’re slow on defense, they have the capability of scoring a lot of goals on us.”

The contests against the Golden Grizzlies are set for 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday at the Ames/ISU Ice Arena.