ASU Men’s Hockey: First-ever NCAA Tournament experience hints at program’s promising future

(Photo: Kylee Meter/WCSN)

Arizona State’s dream season has come to end after a 2-1 loss to Quinnipiac in the program’s first-ever NCAA Tournament appearance at PPL Center in Allentown, Pennsylvania, on Saturday.

However, the Sun Devils believe this weekend’s one-and-done exit from the postseason might only be the beginning for their promising and blossoming future.

In the locker room after the heart-stopping performance, coach Greg Powers held his head high and reassured his players and coaching staff, emphasizing “we will be back.”

“[It’s a] tough loss,” Powers said. It’s never easy losing the final game of the season in a national tournament, but I have so much to be proud of when it comes to our players and our program and we will learn from this and certainly build from it.”

Reaching the Midwest Regional semifinal was nothing short of an incredible accomplishment for ASU during its third full Division-I season, providing the Sun Devils a chance to contend in the 16-team field.

“To make a national tournament in our third full season is a special accomplishment that no one else but our locker room thought that we could do,” Powers said. “Anyone that says that we didn’t belong here or think that we didn’t deserve the right to be here is wrong and they couldn’t be more wrong.”

The Sun Devils were down for nearly the entire game, falling behind in the first four minutes of the opening frame.

But they were never out.

With the “A-S-U” chants piling on from the maroon and gold faithful throughout the contest, the Sun Devils maintained their focus and compete level in the final 20 minutes of regulation against the Bobcats, standing tall with one of the toughest goaltenders and defensive cores in the country.

“I think we proved that tonight with how we didn’t go away and how we came back and nearly tied that thing up,” Powers said.

Down by two late in the third period, junior co-captain Brinson Pasichnuk weaved through the offensive zone and sniped a bullet from the blue line home to give ASU a sign of hope and the program’s first-ever NCAA tournament goal in his 100th career game.

“It was cool. It was another great step in the program,” Pasichnuk said. “Being here and showing the hockey world that Sun Devil hockey is no joke. It is actually the opposite because it is threatening to be the best program in the country, and it will be very soon.”

The Sun Devils “left it all on the ice”, but it was just short to complete the miraculous comeback.

Nevertheless, Arizona State has a bright future ahead after showing the college hockey world that the program can compete with the best of the best.

The young core, led by the remarkable goaltending of junior Joey Daccord, the sensational goal-scoring of sophomore Johnny Walker and the dedicated veteran leadership, could use this NCAA Tournament experience as the seed to sprout a garden for the future of Sun Devil Hockey.

From a Phoenix-native walk-on to serving as a cornerstone to the Sun Devils’ successful transformation, senior forward Anthony Croston was proud, along with his fellow graduating class, to be a founding father for the program’s uprising success.

“We have been through everything together, us seniors, and it has been one hell of a ride,” Croston said. “I am just lucky to even be here. It is definitely special that I am able to play Division I hockey at Arizona State because it is something that I never thought of growing up. When the opportunity came, I jumped right on it and it was nothing but amazing to me.”

As the five seniors (Croston, Dylan Hollman, Jakob Stridsberg, Jake Clifford, and Jack Rowe) move on triumphantly from their college hockey careers, Arizona State will be hoping to carry on the pride and success they created during their time on campus. With a strong, budding core prepared to tackle another season next fall, Powers is confident the Sun Devils will be ready to return to the NCAA Tournament in the near future.

“I think that the takeaway is that we all know that we are going to be back,” Powers said. “And it will be sooner than later.”

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Michael Gutnick

Michael Gutnick studies sports broadcast journalism at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication. Michael covers men's hockey along with various Arizona State sports for the Walter Cronkite Sports Network.