(Photo: Nicholas Badders/WCSN)
After three weeks with no games, the Arizona State women’s hockey team is back this weekend and face off against the Denver for their last home games.
The two teams faced off against each other last season at Oceanside Arena in Tempe, a series where ASU got their only victories of the regular season.
“I don’t think we should come in over-cocky thinking we are going to win,” Amber Galles said about the upcoming series. “I think we should really kind of play it hard and know that we are talented and know that we can play them.”
Arizona State is 5-11-1 this season with three of those wins being at Oceanside.
In these being the team’s last home games, the Devils are hoping to come away with wins, especially with it being the program’s first senior night on Saturday.
“I think last year being the only home games and this time being our last home games, I think that has a lot of significance and they have more energy in situations like that,” head coach Lindsey Ellis said. “And especially knowing that we won against them last year, I think they will just be able to come out fired and be able to compete against them very well.”
During the series last season, Galles had the program’s first hat trick and Dannika Borges made many contributions as well in the two games.
“It was amazing, it was really fun,” Galles said on the game where she recorded the hat trick. “I mean getting those first two it was like, ‘Oh wow look what was going on,’ and then I saw the last one coming and it was just kind of a shock, I was like ‘oh my gosh’ and everyone was throwing hats and stuff and it was really cool.”
With Saturday’s game being senior night, the four seniors are going to give it their all and play the best that they can.
“I want to score, I want to go out with a bang,” Borges said. “This is my last home game.”
Having a few weeks without games allowed the team to rest and prepare for the series ahead. Their main focus in the time off? Passing and break outs.
“With Denver, we are evenly matched with them so being able to get that puck out of the zone and getting those offensive rushes is going to make the difference in the game,” Ellis said.
“I think really trying to practice different ones this weekend kind of mixing it up, confusing people will be really cool to see,” Galles said on their focuses in practice.
Every team is going to face some challenges and with positivity, these challenges can be overcome. For ASU, it is no different.
“I don’t want to lose our senior night,” Borges said. “I feel like a lot of teams lose on their senior night and I don’t want that to be happening to us especially on our first senior night as a program.”
Other than the seniors, there is another player that is going to be a strong key factor in the series.
“…I think Molly [Potter] is always a player we watch on defense, she always come up big on those defensive plays.” Ellis said.
While Potter has not recorded any points this season, her presence on the blue line has been vital to the team’s ability to stay competitive all season long.
Another sweep against Denver this weekend puts ASU in a good position to qualify for the WWCHL playoffs at the end of the regular season.
Puck drop is at 7:30 p.m. on Friday and 6:30 pm on Saturday.
