Coming off a big series sweep against Michigan-Dearborn, No. 24 Cyclone Hockey looks to be back on track preparing for a tough opponent in the No. 5 Ohio Bobcats.

Ohio has been dominant at home, outscoring its opponents 37-5 in seven home games. But this game is on the road in Ames, where the Cyclones play well.

Very well, in fact, scoring 94 goals in 11 home games this season.  

“When you score that many goals again the No. 13 ranked team [Michigan-Dearborn], it’s good for their confidence,” said head coach Jason Fairman. “People ask, ‘What did you do differently?’ But we really didn’t do anything differently, we just scored and things went our way. 

Ohio is 2-3 on the road this season, while Iowa State is 8-3 at home.

Highly ranked teams aren’t knew to the Cyclones. They have played No. 1 Central Oklahoma, No. 12 Lindenwood, No. 13 Michigan-Dearborn and No. 16 Oklahoma and skated well with all of them.

Rankings, however, mean nothing to Fairman.

“Our rank does not reflect our team,” Fairman said. “We play top teams all year. Unfortunately we were on the losing end early but that will change.”

The Cyclones were in a bit of a scoring slump in October. Before the Michigan-Dearborn series, Iowa State only managed to score 12 goals in six games, with five of those goals coming in one game.

Last week v.s. Michigan-Dearborn, Iowa State put up 13 goals in the two-game series and look to be putting the puck in the back of the net again.

“We were getting frustrated not scoring a lot of goals and then having a game where you put up nine is definitely something we needed going into Ohio,” said forward Zack Johnson. “We feel confident about putting the puck in the back of the net.”

The team knows that this game will not be as easy as the scoring outburst against Michigan-Dearborn.

“Every game you have to go in there and earn it again,” said defensemen Antti HelantoCQ. “We all know Ohio is a really tough opponent, so everyone knows how serious this game is.”

Cyclone Hockey will take on the Ohio Bobcats at 7:30 p.m. on Oct. 31 and Nov. 1 at the Ames/ISU Ice Arena.