(Photo: Travis Whittaker/WCSN)
It has been nearly three weeks since the Arizona State Men’s Hockey team has played a game.
Their last on-ice showcase was a series split in the frozen expanse of state-49 against Alaska-Fairbanks.
Now, after some much needed rest and recuperation, the Sun Devils look to get a winning streak started against a team that has been struggling in the Vermont Catamounts (1-8-1).
“I’ll tell you, [Vermont] is a good team,” ASU head coach Greg Powers said after Tuesday morning’s shortened practice. “I know they have one win, but on film, they’re good. They play everybody tight, they’re heavy, and we are not taking this team lightly.
Vermont’s struggles this season have been heavily related to the team’s offensive production, or rather, lack thereof.
In Vermont’s 10 games this season, the Catamounts have only managed to score 13 goals all season. Six of the 13 goals came from two 3-goal outings, with the most recent being Nov. 23 in a 3-3 tie with the Terriers from Boston University.
With the Catamounts lack of scoring, the team has had to rely heavily upon their senior goaltender, Stefanos Lekkas.
Lekkas’ early season performances have not gone unnoticed, either. In Lekkas’ 10 games played, Lekkas has posted a 2.71 GAA with a .911 SV% to boot.
His resilience in net has earned Powers’ high praise.
“[Lekkas] is really good,” Powers said. “He may be the best goalie in college hockey, he is that good. We’re going to have to be creative in how we generate offense and score.”
Fortunately for ASU, the offense will get a much-needed jolt with the returns of both senior forward Brett Gruber and junior forward Filips Buncis.
With Gruber’s return, the Sun Devils will reclaim their best faceoff man, which will no doubt be a major boon for the team’s zone possession and penalty kill.
“To get [Gruber] back is a huge shot in the arm,” Powers said. “We obviously missed Fil for the last handful of games, and he was playing his best hockey since he’s been here. So, we’re excited to get both of them back.”
For the players, themselves, they’re just excited for it to be game week again.
Winners of five of their last six games, including a series sweep against then No. 9 Quinnipiac University.
Now, leading point scorer (2G, 13A, 15P) and junior forward James Sanchez expressed the team’s cumulative to play an opponent.
“We were all talking once the second week rolled around,” Sanchez said. “We were like: ‘We want to play.’ It gets annoying watching all these teams play and move up in the rankings. I think we’re definitely chomping at the bit a little bit.”
For sophomore goaltender Evan DeBrouwer, he echoed much of the same things Sanchez did.
“Nothing’s better than playing every weekend,” DeBrouwer said. “I think everyone is chomping at the bit.”
DeBrouwer who has settled in as the Sun Devils primary starter with a 2.41 GAA and a .916 SV% did concede, however, that although it’s great to be back on the ice for a real game, it can be sometimes be a challenge to get back into the swing of things after so much time off.
“Jumping back into a game is going to be tough off the start,” DeBrouwer said. “But that’s on me to be ready to play. This is a huge weekend for us. We need these two wins.”
Lastly, this series kicks off a set of 13 straight weekends in which ASU will be playing games.
Although a daunting task, the team appears to be more than ready to attack the challenge head on.
“It’s a day-by-day thing,” Sanchez said. “We just have to have a good mindset going through it, and we just got to ride the wave a little bit.”
