(Photo: Gabrielle Mercer/WCSN)
Arizona State hockey returns to the desert for a two-game series with the Alabama Huntsville Chargers this upcoming weekend.
The series between the only two Division I competitors of the Sun Belt will be a chance for the Sun Devils to improve their 1-5-2 record.
For the past three Fridays, ASU’s shortcomings led to losses. But for each loss, the Sun Devils revealed their potential during the Saturday night match-ups- falling by one goal to Air Force, and then tying Nebraska Omaha and Colgate.
“That was a tough stretch, you know it was a necessary evil unfortunately,” ASU head coach Greg Powers said. “The silver lining is that on both Saturdays the last two weeks we played pretty damn well and gave ourselves a chance to win.”
Last weekend, the Sun Devil offense was tested by Colgate goalie Colton Point, who Powers said is possibly the best in the country.
Despite ASU’s nine opportunities on the power play during the series, Point posted his first career shutout in the series opener and allowed only one goal on Saturday.
“Right now it’s a young frustrated power play unit that’s not getting the job done,” Powers said.
Conversely, the trip to New York revealed how the Devils’ have rectified their penalty kill.
Omaha-Nebraska scored four times off ASU penalties, but this past weekend the Sun Devil defense allowed Colgate to score only one goal with the man advantage on Friday. The special teams carried the momentum into Saturday and killed all of Colgate’s power play opportunities.
The first-ever series against Alabama-Huntsville will be another test for ASU’s special teams: the Chargers are ranked 33rd out of 60 NCAA DI teams with a 17.24 power play goal percentage.
Although both opponents are ranked in the bottom ten for team offense, the Sun Devils may have the upper hand with Joey Daccord in between the pipes.
As a key component in reforming special teams, Daccord has steadily improved his save percentage to .918. Powers said the sophomore had his best weekend thus far at Colgate and described his performance as “flawless.”
Like the Sun Devils, the Chargers have struggled the past three weeks on the road and arrive to the desert with a 1-5-0 record.
Alabama Huntsville is only missing one defensemen from last season, but their returning blue line includes Cam Knight, Kurt Gosselin and Brandon Parker. The trio took three of the spots in the teams’ record last year for top five scorers.
With no victories since their win at home over UMass-Amherst in the season opener, ASU returns to Oceanside Ice Arena with redemption on its mind on Friday, Nov. 3.
