GREAT FALLS, Mont. – The University of Providence men's hockey team will take kick off pool play in the ACHA National Tournament on Monday, March 14.

The Argos (14-5) are guaranteed three games in pool play, with the winner of the pool advancing to the National Semifinals. The squad will take on Iowa State on Monday at 10:15 a.m. MTN, Florida Gulf Coast on Tuesday at 7:45 p.m. MTN, and Bentley on Wednesday at 1:45 p.m. MTN. All games will be played in St. Louis, Mo.

The team has spent the past two weeks taking advantage of their time on the ice. This past week was the school's spring break, which meant the team had the advantage of being able to focus a majority of their attention on just hockey. Head coach Jeff Heimel said that he saw vast improvements in puck protection, defending and the team's overall conditioning level this past week and is hoping that translates to the team playing a complete hockey game.

"We wanted to increase the level of competition," he said. "We had a good video session on Monday. The realization is that we're still capable of improving. We want to put together 60 minutes of hockey versus 20 minutes here or eight minutes here. We score in waves sometimes and have been up and down. We want a full-60 minute effort. That's been the emphasis."

Heimel has also spent some of the office time scouting the three opponents, who join the pool from the other three regions in the country. The team has a steep challenge – the Cyclones were National Runner-Ups last season and Florida Gulf Coast has won multiple National Championships over the past decade.

"We don't know a lot about some of these teams," Heimel said. "I like that, it's fun. We end up playing the same teams every year in the regular season so there's some excitement in terms of scouting and things like that. The teams have good reputations. We're doing our best through film study to understand those teams a bit more."

However, Heimel has done his best to emphasize to the team that the deciding factor won't be what their opponents are doing, but rather how good the team itself plays.

"Teams are so good at this point in the season," Heimel said. "If we want to move on we have to manage mistakes. We have to be tactical, we have to be smart. We have to have a little bit of an edge. We have to compete hard. Nothing is going to be given to us. We can't just walk over teams. The biggest key for us is just to bring it."