The ISU men’s hockey club will get its 2004-05 season started this weekend when it plays a two-game series against the Twin Bridges Lightning.

The pair of games at the Ames/ISU Ice Arena kicks off a brutal schedule that will feature some of the nations toughest competition, including rivals Illinois, Minot State, Weber State and Ohio.

Twin Bridges comes to Ames as a brand new team in the American Collegiate Hockey Association. It is a junior team, which means it has players on its roster who are ages 20 and younger. Twin Bridges is from St. Louis, but is a member of the Minnesota Junior Hockey League.

It provides a good opportunity for Iowa State because it gives Coach Al Murdoch and his staff a chance to evaluate the Lightning players and the potential to recruit some of them to be future Cyclones.

“Two-thirds of our players had some junior hockey experience before they played here at Iowa State,” Murdoch said. “It makes for a more mature student as well as a more mature hockey player.”

As for the current Cyclones, Murdoch said the team has been working hard this week with team tryouts and are really getting “anxious to get under way.”

The hockey club, which played its annual intrasquad scrimmage Thursday night, will be using this weekend’s exhibitions to do a number of things.

First, the players will be fighting for line and roster spots. Murdoch said he plans to use about 21 players per night and hopes to play around 30 players total during the two games. The team will also be using the games against the Lightning as a warmup for the stern competition it will be facing this season.

Murdoch said the games this weekend will be physical in nature, as junior teams tend to play very physical. They also allow fighting, unlike the American Collegiate Hockey Association, so that may add to the level of physical play this weekend.

The two teams will square off at 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday.