(Photo: Nicholas Badders/WCSN)
Coming into this season, there was a lot of uncertainty about Arizona State’s roster: How would the team perform going up against one of the hardest schedules in the country? Would a second-straight top-20 recruiting class raise the Sun Devils’ level of play? How would the veterans settle into new third- and fourth-line roles?
There has been consistency from day one though, and that was how head coach Greg Powers wanted to set up his lines for the season.
“We’ve had a pretty good idea from really day one what our lineup was going to look like,” Powers said before the start of the season. “ And we like where we’re at.”
Through the first two series of the season, Powers has stuck by that comment. Very few changes have been made to ASU’s lines, and overall, the decision to not change the lines appears to have been the correct one.
Arizona State opened their season with a historic two-game series against Alaska Fairbanks, winning both games 3-0 and 5-0. It was the first time in program history that the Sun Devils started the season 2-0-0, and it was the first weekend shutout for junior goaltender and Senators’ draft pick Joey Daccord.
Last week, ASU took on No.1 Ohio State, where they lost both games 3-2 and 3-0 but played well enough to stick with the Buckeyes from puck-drop to the final horn.
What stood out both games of the OSU series was the aggressiveness and strength of ASU’s fourth line, which kept the Buckeyes top unit from generating many great scoring chances while also drawing a couple of penalties over the weekend.
“[They] insert confidence to everybody in our lineup,” Powers said after the first game against Ohio State. “Dom (Garcia), Steenn (Pasichnuk) and [Jake Clifford], all three were absolutely tremendous … It gave us life”
The key to the line’s’ success stems from the chemistry on and off the ice after the line was formed at the end of last season. forward Steenn Pasichnuk said.
“Toward the end of the year we started as a line, and just clicked right away,” Pasichnuk said. “Coming into this year, we knew that we were going to be back together, so [we] kept in contact all summer.”
The bonds formed on and off the ice have transformed this line into a group of players who are very confident and very proud to know of the role they play on the ice. At the end of last season, the trio made up ASU’s third line. But despite being slotted a rung lower on the lineup card this year, their impact has been notable.
“We know we’re not the most skilled line in college hockey,” Pasichnuk said. “But we also bring an aspect that not a lot of people can bring to the game. Where we create a sense of fear in the other team.”
Pasichnuk also said: “We’re a big, heavy line who can skate… The mindset for us everytime we get out on that ice is just trying to hit everything, trying to hit as much as we can. Get the puck down low and just work them until they get tired and don’t want to be out [on the ice] anymore.”
Pasichnuk’s younger brother and ASU co-captain, Brinson, has taken notice of his brother’s line and the work they have put forward early in the season.
“I freaking love that line,” Brinson Pasichnuk said. “They work harder than anyone in this league … They have just as important if not more important role than everyone on this team.”
The fourth line will play an integral role in ASU’s first road matchup of the year against Alabama-Huntsville (0-4-0) this weekend, where the line will look to continue its hard-nosed brand of play and potentially grab its first points of the season.
“[We just need to] play exactly the way we played [against Ohio State],” Steenn Pasichnuk said. “We poured the tank out every chance we got out on the ice.”
Their tireless efforts haven’t gone unnoticed.
“To be honest they’re my favorite line,” Brinson Pasichnuk said after Tuesday’s practice. “I love being on the ice with them.”
