ASU Men’s Hockey: Sun Devils reveal key matchups, intentions to play in 2020-21 season

(Photo: Marlee Smith/WCSN)

During a Zoom meeting with fans, alumni and media on May 15, Arizona State head coach Greg Powers revealed eight critical matchups on the Sun Devils’ upcoming 2020-2021 schedule.

Powers announced the Desert Hockey Classic at Gila River Arena in Glendale will return for the first time since the 2018-2019 season. ASU is scheduled to compete against Air Force, Nebraska Omaha, and Cornell during the event. While they played Air Force and Nebraska Omaha last year, the Sun Devils have not faced the daunting Cornell squad since January of 2019 when they were swept in Ithaca, New York, and outscored nine goals to three.  

“It’s a great field in the Desert Classic,” Powers said. “Cornell was the No. 1 team in the country last year. We have a natural rivalry with Nebraska-Omaha, who we’ve played every year.”

The Sun Devils will also take part in the inaugural Holiday Face-Off in Milwaukee where they will compete with Wisconsin, Clarkson and UConn. 

“We are very excited to get back to the great State of Wisconsin and play in this event at Fiserv Forum,” Powers said in a release. “The field of teams is fantastic and we are honored to be a part of it.

“It’s always fun for our guys to be able to play for a trophy. The last two times we’ve played for a trophy in either mid-season or pre-season tournaments, we won. It’s going to be a lot of fun.”

ASU will also host potential top-15 programs, Clarkson and the University of Massachusetts Lowell. The Sun Devils maintained a 12-2-2 home record last year.

The Sun Devils will travel to Denver, Ohio State and Quinnipiac for three enticing road matchups. All three opponents ranked in the top 20 of the final USCHO Division I Men’s Poll from the 2019-2020 season.

“We are developing a nice rivalry with Denver,” Powers said. “With their proximity from a geographical standpoint and some of the social media banter that went back and forth last year. We had a big win against them and a tie against them at Gila River.”

While the seventh-year ASU head coach only shared a handful of his team’s most intriguing opponents in the upcoming season, Powers said that the 2020-2021 schedule is completely set. However, he expressed hesitancy when it came to sharing the schedule in its entirety amid uncertainty surrounding the status of the upcoming season due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“As of right now, it’s set and it’s a tremendous schedule,” Powers said. “I’ve talked to everybody on it. We’re planning to play it as it’s been designed to play, but I think releasing it too early under these circumstances is probably a little irresponsible in case we have to go in a different direction and make some changes based on what other programs might do.”

In a broad sense, there is a lack of certainty regarding what the NCAA will do with regards to its fall sports, namely football. While he waits for that situation to crystalize, Powers said he will continue to prepare his players as though they are playing on time. 

“Our guys are working incredibly hard getting into good shape and preparing to come back to campus,” Powers said. “That is our goal.”

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