(Photo: Gabrielle Mercer/WCSN)
the second annual Desert Hockey Classic — one of the newest college hockey tournaments in the country — will be played in a different locale but features a couple of familiar schools.
Prescott Valley, Arizona is the setting, more specifically the Prescott Valley Event Center. The host Arizona State is predictably returning for a second consecutive year, as is Connecticut Huskies.
No. 18 St. Cloud State and the Brown Bears will also be competing on Friday and Saturday.
The Sun Devils face the Bears in the second game on Friday, while both pairs of schools with Husky mascots face off in the first game. The winners and losers of each game play each other on Saturday, with ASU playing in the finale regardless of its result.
With plenty of intrigue heading into the weekend, this year’s tournament should be an entertaining way to close 2016.
Arizona State
Record-wise, the 7-13-0 Sun Devils are not among the top contenders in the tournament, but are much improved from when they competed in the Desert Hockey Classic last season.
They will be a bit shorthanded, as sophomore Jordan Masters, who was the leading scorer during the 2015-2016 season, was dismissed from the team for unknown reasons.
His loss also affects this season’s points leader Robbie Baillargeon and Wade Murphy, who often found themselves on the same line as Masters. The three were gelling as one of Greg Powers’ most consistent lines up to this point.
However, ASU enters the tournament on a three game winning streak, its longest of the season. Forward David Norris picked up two points and two assists over the three game stretch, and was rewarded by being named the first star of the week by the NCAA.
Friday’s contest will be the first game in 13 days for the Sun Devils, which is the longest they have gone without playing up to this point. With that said, rust could play a factor over the weekend, although it is something that ASU hasn’t particularly shown yet this season.
Brown
This season has not been kind to the Bears, who have the worst winning percentage of any team in the tournament at just .250.
Blowouts have abundant against them, as they have been outscored 46-26 by opponents. In addition, the Bears have scored more than three goals in only three games this season.
The lack of scoring has made it hard on the goalies, especially freshman Gavin Nieto, who has been the primary starter. He has had struggles of his own, sporting only a .877 save percentage, but he hasn’t exactly been picked up by his offense.
Special teams have been an issue for the Bears as well. They have allowed 17 power play goals and only have six of their own, five of which have been scored by Max Willman and Charlie Corcoran, who are also top two on the team in overall goals.
Although Brown has yet to play a neutral site game, which is technically what the tournament is being considered as for every team involved, they are a lackluster 1-6 on the road.
The Matchup
By the looks of it, the Bears were the best possible team ASU could have drawn for its first game of the tournament.
Almost all of the Sun Devils wins this season have come against teams with losing records, and they have fared well overall against those teams that have struggled, so the cards are stacked in their favor.
Knowing that a win puts them in the championship game, it will be interesting to see how Powers utilizes his goalies. He has shown the willingness to use all three, although freshman Joey Daccord has seemingly fallen out of favor lately due to some struggles.
Robert Levin allowed two goals in two games against Massachusetts in the last pair of games that ASU played in, and should get a look in at least one game over the weekend. Whether Powers opts to ride the hot hand in the event of a strong game one performance remains to be seen.
Like the Sun Devils, Brown has been playing better hockey as of late, winning two of its last three games. The Bears have had an even longer gap between games, taking a holiday break that has lasted since their last matchup, which was on December 10.
Expect a physical game that could become chippy in nature, as the teams have combined for over 500 penalty minutes this season.
St. Cloud State
After starting the year off ranked as the No. 3 team in the country, the Huskies have dropped down 15 spots, and its easy to see why.
They have had a difficult schedule and are middling around .500 with a 8-7-1 record. Two losses to a top 10 team like North Dakota isn’t all that surprising, but SCSU was outscored 7-0 in those two games. The Huskies also have two losses on their schedule to No. 1 Minnesota-Duluth, as well as one to Nebraska-Omaha.
Perhaps a jump back to non-conference games are what they need, as they have gone 4-2 in matchups outside of the NCHC.
They are currently 14th in the NCAA in total offense, averaging 3.38 goals per game.
Yet if they draw a matchup against ASU on Saturday, it will be two opposite ends of the spectrum when it comes to penalty minutes. The Sun Devils have the second most per game in the country, while the Huskies have the second least, and are averaging less than 10 per game, which has been the biggest strength of their game.
UConn
Of the four teams in the tournament, the Huskies may be the hardest to get a read on. The magic number for UConn this season has been six. That is the number of wins, losses, and ties that they have.
To their credit, the Huskies have wins against Notre Dame, Boston University, and UMass-Lowell but have also lost to Sacred Heart and St. Francis Xavier.
Tage Thompson, one of the best underclassmen in the country, leads the Huskies offensively. He is tenth in the NCAA with 12 goals in 18 games.
The Huskies tag team of freshman Adam Huska and senior Rob Nichols in goal has produced generally positive results, as both are in the top 30 in goals against average. Huska is also in the top 10 in save percentage.
Since their results have been all over the map, the Huskies, who usually find themselves in close games, should be in another one on Friday.
