Cyclone Hockey hits the road to face Central Oklahoma in Oklahoma City for the second time this season at 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday. 

The last time these two teams faced was on Iowa State’s home ice in late October. The Cyclones split the series. 

With a long break, an important factor heading into the first week back for both teams will be which one shows up more prepared to play. The Cyclones are no stranger to coming back from break on the road, but the true test will be how ready they appear to be to take on the weekend series.

Prior to the break, the Cyclones won four straight games to bounce back from a disappointing stretch in November. C

Iowa State is led in scoring by Aaron Azevedo and Dalton Kaake. Both players have 10 goals a piece and were big contributions to the December success.

Central Oklahoma’s power offense is led by Sam Rice and Taylor Herndon. Rice had 14 goals on the season while Herndon has 13.

Both teams have similar exceptional offensive depth and are closely matched.

“They’ve got opportunistic players, they’re always skilled and well-coached,” coach Jason Fairman said. “They’re always ranked top-10 just like we are and we always have great games.”

Iowa State has two weeks of practice under its belt and is in full swing to begin the second and most important half of the season.

“It’s about getting legs underneath guys, Fairman said. “Addressing some conditioning and going back to the basics in preparation for the second half of the season.”

This series is the only away game for Cyclone Hockey this month. 

“We need to stay healthy and maintain a compete level that allows us to be successful,” Fairman said. “Battling for pucks we seem to have some success so I think that’ll be the key to second semester.”