This weekend will be important for the ISU men’s hockey team in terms of points and position regarding standings before the Central States Collegiate Hockey league tournament.

This weekend the Cyclones will travel to take on the St. Louis University Billikens as the CSCHL will close out the regular season.

No. 10 Iowa State is 21-14-2 overall and in third place in the CSCHL with 34 points and a record of 8-7-1. The team is only four points ahead of No. 11 St. Louis, who is 16-14-0 overall and 8-8-0 in the CSCHL.

A possible two seed in the CSCHL tournament is one of the things the Cyclones would like to have if they sweep the Billikens.

In order to do accomplish that, Iowa State needs to get some help from Illinois, which is in first place and hosts No. 2 Ohio University this weekend. Ohio has 40 points in the standings and can possibly get the two seed with at least one victory over Illinois.

ISU head coach Alan Murdoch said St. Louis used to be a Division I school back in the 1970s. “They’re on the rise again. They’ve got an excellent team,” Murdoch said. “They resembled us. They got some players that can really play.”

Murdoch said that the team can finish anywhere between second and fifth place in the standings after this weekend.

“The team is pretty much fired up after last weekend’s sweep. We got a pretty good game plan in place,” Murdoch said. “Now it’s a matter of making it work now. We’re fairly healthy. We got some aches and pains.”

The match-up between the Cyclones and the Billikens will be the first this season. Iowa State is coming off a weekend sweep to Wisconsin-Whitewater [8-2, 6-3] while St. Louis comes off a split to Rhode Island by losing the first game 3-2 and winning the second game 7-4.

Tony Daniels, a junior forward from Downers Grove, Ill., said the ultimate team goal heading to the weekend contest is to get two wins.

“That will put us into second place for the league and puts us in a good seed,” said Daniels, who had two goals last weekend. “They have some good players. They’ve been ranked high this year and have been highly talked about. We can’t take them lightly. It’s going to be two good games and we need to come out with a couple of victories.”

Mike Moren, a sophomore defenseman from Lakeville, Minn., said that the team is feeling good after last weekend’s sweep.

“We’re starting to gel pretty good,” said Moren, who had a goal and two assists last weekend. “They [St. Louis] will be coming out hard. They’re looking to make nationals and they’re on the edge right now.”

Daniels said that the team morale is pretty good right now.

“I notice that as a team as a whole, I think we stepped it up,” Daniels said. “During practices, we’ve finally have come together and amounted to something. It really showed last weekend. It was nice to be able to come together.”

After facing St. Louis, Iowa State will host the CSCHL tournament next weekend at the Ames/ISU Ice Arena. The Cyclones will come in the tournament as defending champions.