(Photo: Kylee Meter/WCSN)
Winning a tournament championship for the first time in program history at the inaugural Ice Vegas Invitational was the defining moment of Arizona State’s 2017-2018 season, when it defeated Northern Michigan and Michigan Tech on back-to-back nights in Las Vegas last January to claim the first tournament win in program history.
“It was the turning the point of our program,” coach Greg Powers said. “It was a great moment for our guys to taste what winning felt like, together.”
Now ranked No. 15, ASU is looking to repeat that result as it hosts the best field of the college hockey holiday tournament season at the 2018 Desert Hockey Classic this weekend.
The Desert Hockey Classic returns to Gila River Arena for the second time, featuring four of the top-20 programs in the country: No. 3 Minnesota State, No. 4 Minnesota-Duluth, No. 15 ASU, and No. 19 Clarkson. After a record 14-6-0 start to the season that has them in NCAA Tournament contention, the Sun Devils will quickly get another chance to build their resume this weekend.
“It’s a great opportunity to move up in PairWise (rankings),” junior captain Brinson Pasichnuk said, referencing ASU’s No. 9 ranking in the NCAA Tournament’s critical evaluation tool. “We want to make that tournament, that’s our goal, to win a national championship. We get two big wins this weekend against ranked teams, it’s going to boost us up.”
Arizona State
ASU enters the Desert Hockey Classic on a four-game winning streak after sweeping Princeton and Colorado College.
In their fourth Div. I season, the Sun Devils has broken their single-season win record with 14 victories to this date. Under Powers’ leadership and with the abundance of young talent, ASU has generated a surge of national noise this season, earning their first-ever votes and climbing to as high as No. 13 in the USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine Poll.
While sophomore forward Johnny Walker leads the team with 23 points — including an NCAA-best 17 goals — four of the team’s other 10 skaters with 10-plus points so far this season are freshmen.
“[The freshman class] is beyond even where we hoped they would be,” Powers said. “They’re all contributing on the scoresheet, they’re all more than contributing in the (locker) room. They’ve been a huge addition to our program.”
The Sun Devils have been solid at both ends of the ice, ranking 11th nationally in offense (3.45 goals per game) and 13th defensively (2.30 goals allowed per game).
Junior goaltender Joey Daccord has played every minute in the crease. Daccord has posted a .930 save percentage and a 2.15 goals against average while leading the country in shutouts with five shutouts.
After Minnesota State and Minnesota-Duluth kick off the tournament on Friday, December 28th at 4:30 p.m. MST, Arizona State will battle Clarkson at 7:30 p.m. MST.
On the following day, ASU will play in the later game at 7:30 p.m. MST in either the championship game or the consolation game against Minnesota State or Minnesota-Duluth.
“Whoever shows up most mentally prepared, especially in a field like this with four good teams, is the team that’s going to win,” Powers said. “[Our guys] look great. They were way sharper than we anticipated them being (after the holiday break).”
Clarkson
ASU will open its Desert Hockey Classic by facing Clarkson at 7:30 p.m. Friday night at Gila River Arena. Guided by eighth-year coach Casey Jones, the Golden Knights finished the first half of the season with a 9-6-0 overall record, winning five of their last seven games.
CU will face off against ASU for the third time since the Sun Devils started their Division I program. The Golden Knights swept the Sun Devils in their inaugural campaign, winning a weekend series at Cheel Arena in 2015, 3-2 and 4-1.
Jump ahead three years, the Golden Knights’ defensive effort ranks 10th in the NCAA, allowing only 2.20 goals per game. Offensively, CU averages 3.27 goals per game, which ranks 13th overall.
Junior co-captain Nico Sturm leads the Golden Knights in scoring with 17 points on seven goals and a team-high 10 assists. Right behind Sturm, junior forward Haralds Egle holds 16 points to his name, including a team-leading two goals on the power play, which ranks 30th overall in the country.
Junior goaltender Jake Kielly has started all 15 games for CU with a 2.16 goals-against-average and .922 save percentage. As NCAA’s active leader in career shutouts, Kielly posted his 13th shutout with 15 saves in a 3-0 win over St. Lawrence in the last game before the break.
“(They have) great goaltending,” Powers said. “Incredibly aggressive team, hard to play against. They have a good mix of size and skill, they’re built really well. They’re balanced. They’re a lot like us.”
Minnesota State
Minnesota State makes its first trip to the Desert Hockey Classic, standing at 14-4-0 overall and 9-3-0 in WCHA play.
In his seventh season behind the bench, coach Mike Hastings has established a 165-76-19 record with three NCAA tournament appearances and three conference regular season championships under his guidance.
The Mavericks earned an at-large berth into the 2017-18 NCAA tournament before losing 3-2 in overtime to eventual national champion Minnesota-Duluth in a regional first-round game.
This year, Minnesota State has exploded on offense with the fourth highest number of goals on the season. At the forefront of the Mavericks scoring threat is junior forward Parker Tuomie. Tuomie holds a team-high 22 points with nine goals and 13 assists. First-year captain Marc Michaelis paces the Mavericks with 11 goals, including three markers on the power play.
With the man-advantage, the Mavericks have converted 22 times on 93 attempts, which ranks 9th in the country.
Goaltending has also been supreme with senior Mathias Israelsson locking down the fort with a 1.74 goals-against-average and .908 save percentage.
The Mavericks and the Sun Devils have not played each other before in program history. Minnesota State takes on Minnesota-Duluth in the Desert Hockey Classic opener at 4:30 p.m. on Friday.
Minnesota-Duluth
The defending national champions will be in town as Minnesota-Duluth pays a visit for the first time to Arizona. The Bulldogs are 10-4-2 overall and 4-3-1 in NCHC play.
Coach Scott Sandelin will not make an appearance in Glendale this weekend due to his assistant coaching obligations with the United States at the IIHF World Junior Championships. Sandelin shares the title as the winningest head coach in UMD men’s hockey history with a 350-303-86 overall record in 19 seasons at the helm.
Like Sandelin, a trio of Bulldogs — sophomore defensemen Mikey Anderson and Dylan Samberg and freshman forward Noah Cates – will not participate in the Desert Hockey Classic as they represent the U.S. at the 2019 International Ice Hockey Federation World Junior Championship in Vancouver and Victoria, British Columbia.
UMD enters the Desert Hockey Classic with the top-ranked penalty kill efficiency at .919. The Bulldogs haven’t given up a power play goal in their last five games, holding the opposition scoreless on 22 straight opportunities with the man advantage.
A large part to their defensive success comes with the netminding of junior Hunter Shepard. Shepard is tied for fourth among NCAA goaltenders in wins (10) and owns the nation’s ninth-best goals against average (1.77).
The Bulldogs are a perfect 9-0 when they’ve drawn first blood this season, including an undefeated mark (6-0) when leading after the first period of play.
The second period has been even better for UMD. The Bulldogs have outscored the opposition 26-9 in the second period this season. Those 26 second-period goals are the third most among all NCAA I teams.
While their penalty kill stands as the king of the hill, their power play holds a high mark as well with a 21.7 conversion rate. The Bulldogs have struck on the power play at least once in 11 of its 16 games thus far with junior forward Riley Tufte leading the way with four power play markers.
Sophomore All-American Scott Perunovich is the backbone of UMD’s power play. Perunovich is tied for fifth nationally with 16 assists and is also fifth in scoring among NCAA I defensemen with 18 points.
The Bulldogs and the Sun Devils have not played each other, but the matchup could be the likely favorite in the championship round.
“(After playing Clarkson) it’s between those other two teams,” Pasichnuk said of the two Minnesota schools. “They’re both really good teams.”
