(Photo: Haley Spracale/WCSN)
Arizona State Men’s Hockey and Quinnipiac last played each other nearly two years ago on Nov. 19, 2019 – just eight months removed from the Sun Devils’ first NCAA tournament appearance that resulted in a 2-1 loss to the Bobcats.
In that series, the Sun Devils won both games at Oceanside Ice Arena – a seemingly unprecedented advantage thats weight has carried over into 2021-22.
ASU head coach Greg Powers mentioned that the series one of the program’s best performances in school history.
“Last time we had them, they were here [at Oceanside] and we swept them,” Powers said. “They were a top ten team and we played maybe the best series we’ve played.”
Now, the Sun Devils travel to Hamden, CT this weekend to play the No. 5 ranked Bobcats for their toughest challenge so far in the still-early 2021-22 season.
Powers noted it’s not a rivalry between the two schools, but the way things ended between these two teams back in 2019 suggests that Quinnipiac might very well want vengeance. ASU is 5-1 playing in Tempe this year, and is 1-3 start on the road thus far.
“Home ice is always an advantage,” Powers said. “It’s a unique building that we are use to practicing in and playing in, and for teams that come in and just get a skate in here, it’s tough.”
Powers said that ASU has the confidence needed to prove themselves to the country this weekend.
“The programs are essentially the same,” Powers said. “The style of play is the same on both sides from both sides. Like I said, it’s just going to be a matter of ‘Will we win?’ on Friday night.”
The Sun Devils have focused a lot on their game plan ahead of the Quinnipiac series.
“We’ve just been working hard out there,” senior forward Colin Theisen said. “Sticking with what we do and I think that our process in practice means a lot to the game, and that’s what we’ve been sticking with.”
Theisen scored a hat trick for the Sun Devils in their last game against the St. Thomas Tommies and hopes to continue playing his style of hockey against the Bobcats.
“Stick to the process,” Theisen said. “I’m not trying to do anything special out there. Stick with how we play and our lines have been clicking right now, so we are just going to keep going.”
Part of the success from all of the Sun Devils’ lines is their physicality and aggressiveness, which they hope can continue this weekend.
“I think we just need to be all over them,” Theisen said. “Hard and physical. [Quinnipiac] is a hard-nosed team, so I think we just got to match that.”
ASU has started slow in series openers this year. It lost 8-3 against Denver and Colgate earlier this season.
Theisen and the Sun Devils hope to implement a new game plan to help mitigate the recurring issue.
“I think our biggest issue in the past has been our starts,” Theisen said. “If we just start the first five and focus on five minutes, I think we will be fine.”
The Sun Devils will also need to play well on their power play opportunities – ASU excelled on the man advantage early in the year but struggled with it in its last series. ASU is second in the nation in power play goals scored, but failed to score once against St. Thomas while playing a man up. ASU will look to get the power play back to its original dominance during chances this weekend.
“The biggest thing on the road is creating your own momentum, so working hard and moving your feet and drawing those penalties and getting the power play out there and capitalizing will be huge for us,” Theisen said.
