Cyclone Hockey will go on its last road trip of the regular season Friday and Saturday, where they will take on No. 12 Illinois in Champaign, Illinois.

The Cyclones have seen some recent success against Illinois in their first weekend series against them Jan. 25-26 at home.

The Cyclones swept the Fighting Illini with 4-1 and 6-3 wins that first series, and have the same goal throughout these next two weekends.

“We’ve got to win every game for the rest of the season,” said head coach and general manager Jason Fairman.

The team is coming off a tough weekend against No. 4 Ohio, where they played well but didn’t come up with the results they wanted.

Prior to that, they had a lengthy home-stand with a record of 4-2-1-1. The Cyclones are aiming to change their luck this weekend and next weekend before they head into the postseason.

“We’ve played well over this last stretch, we just haven’t gotten the results in the win column,” Fairman said.

The Cyclones have recently lost their No. 4 spot, dropping to No. 5 in the ACHA rankings, which has the team motivated to get it back.

Fairman added that he’s still happy with where they are in the rankings at this point in the season, but disappointed that they lost that No. 4 spot. However, they still have a chance to claim it again.

“We need that top-four spot, so we need every point we can get here coming down this stretch,” said senior forward Colton Kramer. “Not only for nationals, but it’s important for our divisional championship as well.”

Kramer said that having the fourth spot would allow the team a bit more rest when they get to nationals. Without it, they will potentially play four games in a row without a day of rest.

Having as many opportunities for rest is what the team hopes for, considering the tournaments’ other challenges.

“Nationals and the CSCHL tournament are away from home, so having some recent success on the road trip to think back on and reflect on definitely helps in those situations and those tough tournaments,” said senior defenseman Nick Sandy.

The Cyclones hope to see that success this weekend against the University of Illinois, whom they have seen many times before.

Illinois is one of Cyclone Hockey’s CSCHL division rivals, which emphasizes how important this weekend is even more.

“We’re pretty familiar with Illinois’ team, so I think we can focus on getting after it right away, and setting a tone for the weekend at the first drop of the puck,” Sandy said.

Kramer said that there weren’t too many things he thought the team needed to change after last weekend against Ohio.

However, they’ll aim to capitalize more offensively, which has proven to be an issue in recent games.

“I think we played pretty well last weekend, it just came down to we were getting all these chances and the goalies were making good saves,” Kramer said. “I think if we just stick to what we were doing, put in a little more effort, we’ll get a different outcome this weekend.”