No. 8 Cyclone Hockey will return home for the first time in over a month this weekend, when it takes on No. 17 Illinois this Friday at the Ames/ISU Ice Arena.

The Cyclones are coming off a weekend split with No. 7 Central Oklahoma, when they won Friday and were downed Saturday.

“It was inconsistent, but if someone asked before the weekend, ‘Would you take a split?’ I’d say absolutely,” coach Jason Fairman said. 

The Cyclones entered the third period of Saturday’s game with a 2-1 lead.

“All we had to do was hold a third period lead to get a sweep at Central Oklahoma,” Fairman said. “That’s disappointing when you think of what could have been.”

Jake Arroyo took a slashing penalty midway through the period, and Central Oklahoma took the lead and ultimately the game.

The Cyclones played for the first time in three weeks against Central Oklahoma, a break that can make it difficult to get back into the rhythm, but also provide a must-needed rest.

“We should be fresh after a couple weeks off, now it’s just reinforcing systems,” Fairman said. “There’s some challenges, in some ways it’s like starting at the beginning of the year, just reminding guys how things are done.”

The split showed that the Cyclones are ready to get back into the swing of things.

“I think we’re pretty confident right now, we went 1-1 against a team that was ranked ahead of us,” Dalton Kaake said. “We’re not happy with the rankings going up and down, but all in all we I don’t think we can change that in any way.”

Cyclone Hockey will face Illinois, which plays on a sheet of ice bigger than normal, this weekend. The Cyclones, being on a normal sheet of ice, might have an advantage.

“We’re a very small-rink team,” Kaake said.

This refers to a big-rink team having more space to pass the puck, therefore more time to make decisions. All of that goes out the window in a smaller rink.

Kaake said the Illini will make up for it by being a hard-hitting team, and the Cyclones will need to match their consistency to compete with them.

“I think if we take them lightly, which our guys know not to do,” Fairman said. “Anything can happen.”