As the Cyclone Hockey team looks forward to three games Nov. 7-9, two of them against the No. 13 ranked Minot State Beavers, it has a main goal in mind: keep playing its game.

“We are trying to continue what we’ve been doing all season,” said Cyclone Hockey coach Jason Fairman. “Like I’ve said, we have outplayed all of our opponents 5-on-5, even on [the Nov. 1 loss]. We just have to play our game.”

The Cyclones come into this weekend’s matchup winning three of their last four American Collegiate Hockey Association games—all against ranked teams. The two games against Minot State are just more games to add to list of Cyclone Hockey’s 11 games playing ranked teams on the season.

“We wanted a tough schedule, so we could test our team against strong opponents,” Fairman said. “The trade off with that is we lose confidence when we lose close games like we have. It increases the frustration in some of our guys. Hopefully it pays off when the National Championship comes around.”

Starting the season 5-5-2 in ACHA, the Cyclones’ tough schedule has dropped them from their preseason ranking of fifth to tenth, and, at one point, as low as 24^th. The team recognizes that this weekend against the Beavers will be important to improve its stance in the rankings.

“It’s going to be a tough series there, and we are going to need all of the points to move up in the rankings to be in a better position moving into the rest of the season,” said assistant captain Antti Helanto. “Every game is more important than the one before. We are on an upward trend, and we need to keep following it.”

The upward trend is in part thanks to Trevor Lloyd finding his scoring touch. He has scored in the last four and has a point streak of six games. Cyclone Hockey gave him Cyclone Hockey Player of the Week honors following the Oct. 31-Nov. 1 series for his two-goal performance in the series.

When these two teams squared off last year, Minot State was ranked No. 2 in the ACHA poll. The Cyclones were also going in winning three of their last four games, as they are now. They took care of business, earning a two-game sweep and outscoring the opposition 6-2.

After registering 40 penalty minutes on Nov. 1 leading to a 4-2 loss, Cyclone Hockey has a few plans on how to stay out of the box.

“We need to cut down on the stick work and keep our feet moving,” said forward Jake Bruhn. “We have to work hard so we aren’t getting our stick under someone’s skate. Sometimes you will have a ref calling a tight game, you just need to play with them.”

Cyclone Hockey also takes on National Junior College Athletic Association opponent the Dakota College-Bottineau Lumberjacks on Nov. 9. The Lumberjacks won four-straight NJCAA titles from 2007-2010.

“They have had success in recent years,” Fairman said. “There is no doubt they will want to knock us off.”

The Cyclones play the Beavers at 7:30 p.m. on both Nov. 7-8 at the Maysa Arena in Minot, N.D. They then travel to Bottineau, N.D. for a 1 p.m. game Nov. 9 with the Lumberjacks.