(Photo Courtesy – Hailey Rogalski)
The winter break has left Arizona State Hockey in a tough position to start the new year, the team is battling injury and was without a healthy scratch last weekend.
For the first time this season and since head coach Greg Powers can remember his team is missing a lot of key players. The Desert Hockey Classic tournament hosted by ASU during the first weekend into the new year saw two more players go down with injury.
Fifth year forward Demetrious Koumontzis had to leave during the first game of the tournament vs Michigan Tech with an upper body injury and junior defenseman Tim Lovell was injured during the second game against Air Force after he was hit along the boards between the penalty boxes.
“We are really thin,” Powers said. “I don’t think I’ve ever had a team that doesn’t have a health scratch…We’ve never had a team this banged up, we went from really, really deep to razor thin, but again we’ve got some guys that can really play still in, so we need those guys to step up.”
As of the game last saturday January 7, 2023 the injury list looked like this: senior defenseman Tanner Hickey, sophomore forward Jack Jensen, sophomore forward Jackson Niedermayer, Koumontzis, junior forward Matthew Kopperud, senior goalie Ben Kraws, freshman forward Charlie Schoen and Lovell after the game on Saturday.
The scratches tally 17 total combined goals and 44 total points for the injured players so far this season. Kopperud and Koumontzis both with five goals, Lovell with three and the others with a handful, which is a big loss to any line up. The remaining players have had to step up and fill the holes which means freshmen are getting opportunities to prove themselves.
One of those holes to be filled is the power play, Kopperud has had four of his five goals this season come on the power play which is leading the team, even now with him out. This power play is a power play that has struggled as of late going one for eight this weekend – the only goal coming in the third period of game one from senior forward Robert Mastrosimone.
“(We’ve) had so many guys out – more than we’ve ever had in these last four games and we are finding ways to get splits and keeping ourself in the mix,” Powers told the media this week, however there might be a light at the end of this tunnel coming soon. “Hopefully we get a couple back this weekend and we can get on a run.”
The only two players that will not be making a return this season are, Niedermayer and Schoen, and while he is feeling better and getting better Lovell is not expected to make an appearance this weekend.
“(Tim) is totally fine. He will have no long term effects of the hit but I don’t think he’ll be in. I think we’re probably looking at one series just for him to get back on the mend and to get healthy.”
Returns to the lineup will be big in helping this team get back to .500 and maybe above it. While freshmen like forward Ryan Alexander are playing well the Sun Devils had a fourth line of all freshman who had a combined 13 total appearance until playing Air Force: Ryan Robinson, Tucker Ness and Cade Stibbe, this still is not a recipe for long term success at the college level, players need time to develop and grow. Injuries have forced this team into a very tough spot and caused them to have to battle and fight for wins.
