(Photo: Nicholas Badders/WCSN)
The Arizona State women’s club hockey team travels to Boulder, Colorado this weekend, where they play four games in three days, including three games against ranked teams as a part of the 2017 Western Women’s Collegiate Hockey League Showcase.
Conference showdown with three ranked teams? Stranger things have happened.#StrangerDevils #RoadTrip pic.twitter.com/TQ3SKPv5bo
— Jordan (@JoboTheGoalie) November 2, 2017
All games will be played at Colorado’s CU Rec Center, with the first game taking place against No. 7 Minnesota at 5 p.m. The Gophers come into the weekend with a 3-1-0 record, their only loss coming against Lakehead University (4-1-0) on October 13.
Ranked in the No.7 spot for three of the first four ACHA Women’s D1 Top-15 rankings, Minnesota comes in with very similar stats to ASU. Both teams have scored 16 goals on the season, with the Devils having played two more games. Jordan Guggisberg leads the Gophers in points with eight and is also tied for the team lead in goals with four, along with Lyndsay Oden.
Minnesota’s roster features two goalies, Alexandra Morris and Maddy Campbell, both who have played two games and 120 minutes. Morris has a save percentage of .937, while making 59 saves. Campbell has a slightly lower save percentage of .926, having made 25 saves. However, Campbell was in net for Minnesota’s shutout against Minot State on October 7.
Head coach Lindsey Ellis has a simple message to her team over the course of the weekend: Do not give up. Four games in three days will bee tiring for everyone, not just the Sun Devils and it is important to Ellis that her team keeps that in mind.
While the Devils play top-ranked opponents for their first three games, Minnesota will one of the tougher teams they play, as the Gophers outscored them 13-0 in two games in Minneapolis last season.
“To be able to play Minnesota first is a blessing for us because we’re going to have fresh legs right off the bat,” Ellis said.
While Minnesota will be the most challenging opponent ASU will face, Saturday will be the hardest day for the Devils. They play two games, against No. 4 Lindenwood-Belleville and No. 14 Midland.
Saturday starts off against Lindenwood-Belleville, with a puck drop of 9 a.m. The Lynx are 6-2-0 this season and have one opponent in common so far with the Sun Devils. They started their 2017-18 season against ASU rival Grand Canyon, outscoring theme 15-1 in two games. Their two losses came the following weekend against No. 1 Liberty. Last season, ASU lost both games, being outscored 12-2 on the road.
Lindenwood will be a force to be reckoned with on the ice, as their roster of 28 players features 17 different goal-scorers, including nine players with three or more goals. They return five or their top six scores, including their top scorer from last season, Reagan Fuller, who netted 25 goals in 32 games. This season, Fuller has scored three goals and has three assists for six points.
Michelle Coonan, who served as the No. 2 goalie last season for the Lynx has taken over full-time starting duties this season, making 77 saves for a save percentage of .906 through just over 371 minutes, spread out over eight games.
After facing their toughest opponent of the weekend, the Sun Devils will rest up for a few hours before playing Midland at 7:30 p.m.
Like they did with Minnesota and Lindenwood-Belleville, ASU played two games against Midland last season, but had much closer games, losing both by a score of 3-1. Additionally, both goals were scored by now co-captain Amber Galles.
Midland has played eight games this season, with a record one loss worse than Lindenwood of 5-3-0. This is an improvement on last year, where they finished with a regular season record of 9-20-1. Two of their three losses this year have come against Minot State, while the third was against McKendree University.
Isabelle Uhl Chmiel leads the Warriors so far this year with five goals and seven assists for 12 points. She’s led Midland in goals in each of the two seasons prior to this, also leading the team in assists last year with seven. Coming into this weekend, she has scored 43 lifetime goals with 22 assists for 65 career points.
Miranda Bestul has been the primary goalie for the Warriors this year, playing roughly 342 minutes and having made 127 saves for a save percentage of .914.
The fourth and final opponent that ASU faces will be a familiar one in GCU. The Devils kicked off their season with two games against the ‘Lopes, tieing them 1-1, then winning the second game 4-1. GCU has struggled significantly since then, losing six straight games coming into the weekend. They played Lindenwood-Belleville the weekend after they faced the Devils, then going on to face No. 8 Colorado the following weekend, who outscored them 20-1. The Sun Devils were able to stay more competitive with the Buffaloes when the two squared off at Oceanside, only getting outscored 9-5.
The game against GCU will take place at 9 a.m. Sunday morning, before the team hops back on the bus for Tempe. While the ‘Lopes may be ASU’s easiest opponent, the message Ellis sends to her team is still that they “cannot let our foot off the gas,” as both teams will be tired and the game will not be handed to them by any stretch.
After three straight weekends of games, finishing with a 3-2-1 record, the Devils had three weeks off from games, a time where they were able to focus on fine-tuning during practices.
Ellis and her team used the opportunity to work on areas in which they struggled during their first three series, including breakouts, power plays and movement through the neutral zone, all things that are important for their success and will allow them to come out strong.
ASU’s head coach notes that the break will be of great benefit to the team, especially having not played this past weekend.
“If we had a series last weekend, to try and jump into a weekend like this, it would have been a little more difficult,” Ellis admitted. “So to be able to have that time off and work on things is really great for us.”
While the time off has been nice, and the rest will be of benefit through all four games, senior forward Dannika Borges is eager to get back into game action and out on the ice against the stiff competition, as she believes it is the best way to improve.
“You want to again, get that competition and know what else to work on,” Borges said. “Because when you’re constantly playing games, you can fix things immediately, rather than having three weeks off, you’re doing the same things in practice for the most part.”
Borges, who is looking forward to getting back into game action and playing over almost anything, also eagerly awaits the bonding experience the team will have. The Devils will take a bus to and from Boulder, giving them time to get to know each other better, especially the rookies.
“This is their first travel weekend and we’re not flying this year, so we’ll be on a bus for a long time,” Borges noted. “It’s so beautiful in Boulder, I think we will have some time in between our games on Saturday, if we’re not doing homework, we might have time to go explore for a little bit.”
Ellis is also glad this is the first road weekend of the season for the team, being such an important weekend (these games help determine playoff seeding), as the four days together provide not only a bonding opportunity, but a chance to experience things they have not yet this season.
Ellis says it helps, “especially exposure-wise, but not only for the girls to be able to see different college arenas, different teams, how they operate, things like that. So it will be really good for them to see all that this weekend.”
Borges echoes the sentiment of exposure, hoping that potential recruits see their competitive edge in Colorado and consider West Coast hockey.
“For the young program, it’s going to show these younger girls that are looking at our team that we can keep up with these other teams that have been in existence for a years,” Borges said.
Looking at the showcase as a whole, the Devils have a few areas that will prove incredibly important, but none more than communication. Good communication on the ice and the ability to stay out of the penalty box are crucial, especially considering the short bench the Devils play with, much shorter compared to the teams the will face.
While the exposure exposure goes a long way, the games themselves will have the most immediate impact. ASU is one win away from clinching a playoff spot, something Borges notes she would love to get out of the way against Minnesota on Friday.
Regardless, playing three top-ranked teams and a rival in three days will be the chance for the Sun Devils to prove that they are for real and that the improvements that have been seen in the first six games are legitimate.
Updates from each showcase game can be found on the team’s Twitter account.
