Coming off their first road series of the season, Cyclone Hockey will return home this weekend to take on an unfamiliar foe.

For the first time since the team’s move to Division I in 2015, the Arkansas Razorbacks and the Iowa State Cyclones will square off in a weekend series at the Ames/ISU Ice Arena. While the Razorback hockey program is relatively young, having only been founded in 2008, they have nonetheless experienced plenty of success during their short run.

The team previously won five South Eastern Collegiate Hockey Conference championships at the Division III level before their move up, and were even able to crack the top-25 in their very first season at the Division I level.

This season, however, has been less kind to Arkansas. The team currently sits at a 4-8-1 record coming into this weekend, a record which features both a six-game losing streak, and their current three-game losing streak.

Despite the Razorbacks’ lackluster record, Cyclone Hockey head coach Jason Fairman knows that his team can’t afford to look past anyone, especially because the Cyclones have had plenty of their own struggles against opponents this season as well.

“I hope they’re not taking [Arkansas] lightly,” says Fairman. “We’re going to need every win we can get from here on out.”

This is because, according to Fairman, the team’s recent struggles against tough opponents could negatively impact the team’s ranking.  

“This is going to be the first week for computer rankings, and I don’t think we’re going to rank very high. We haven’t had a quality win yet.”

While the Cyclones did technically win their first game against fourth-ranked Lindenwood, it wasn’t in an impressive fashion. The Cyclones won in a shootout, but were stymied most of the night by a physical Lions team that outshot them by a margin of 29-14.

Iowa State then went on to drop the second game of the series by a score of 3-2, once again being outshot by the Lions in the process.

This was the first time the Cyclones had been outshot in both games of a series. As a result, the Cyclones’ scoring opportunities were limited and the team struggled to put pucks in the net.

One player who did have a good series offensively for the Cyclones, however, was junior forward Jon Severson. The Rockford, Illinois native tallied a huge game-tying goal late in the third period in game one against the Lions, and added another point the next day on an assist to A.J. Gullickson, who also had a multi-point weekend.

Severson says that the key to carrying over his success from last weekend will come down to the work and preparation he puts in during the week.

“[I] just have to work hard, come to practice every day and just keep feeding off all the guys,” Severson said.

He then went on to add that the biggest key to success this weekend for the Cyclones will be making sure that the team sticks playing their style of hockey against the Razorbacks, a sentiment that was echoed by leading goal scorer Tony Uglem.

“This week is really just focusing on what we do well as a team and focusing on what we can do to put ourselves in a position to win,” Uglem said.

The puck will drop for the first game at 7:30 p.m. on Friday at the Ames/ISU Ice Arena, at which time the Cyclones will also be holding their annual “Pink in the Rink” night to raise money and promote breast cancer awareness.

Coach Fairman also notes that for the first time in the event’s history, the team will be wearing special jerseys for the game that will be auctioned off afterward. The jerseys have a minimum starting bid of $75 per jersey, and live bidding will start at 6:30 p.m. and continue until the start of the third period.

“It’s certainly a worthwhile cause and I hope we get good support on Friday night,” Fairman said of the event.