(Photo: Reagan Smith/WCSN)
In any other season, the Arizona State Women’s Hockey team would be preparing for their first game of the year. However, that has all changed.
COVID-19 has presented challenges for every sport and women’s hockey is no different. Even now, it’s still uncertain when the season may begin, or what teams would even be willing to play.
What hasn’t changed is the excitement of the freshman class and transfers coming to ASU. Seven freshmen and four transfer players will be added to the roster. Head coach Lindsey Ellis believes it’s the best recruiting class the program has ever had.
“I say this every single year, but our recruiting class is the best it’s ever been,” Ellis said. “We only have one player that played double-A, pretty much everybody else is Minnesota High School hockey, triple-A tier one players. So, we’re really excited to bring them in and their experience that they’ve already had playing at high levels. It just elevates our game even more.”
One of the freshmen who is expected to make an impact defensively is Lauren Curtis. The Wisconsin native played for the Lakeshore Lightning last season racking up six goals and nine assists as a defenseman.
Curtis also played with freshman Sami Lutsch as a member of the Milwaukee Jr Admirals. Although Lutsch is one of the few players she’s been able to connect with in her short time at ASU, Curtis is focused on sharpening her skills to be ready for when games resume.
“I think I need to keep working hard and doing my work off the ice, I think I kind of started to slack off being down here,” Curtis said. “But [working on] my stick handling, shooting, working out, just doing all those. Then always give 100% in the practices and games.”
One of the transfer players that could make a difference on ASU’s expanded lines is junior Kyran Lackey. The Phoenix-native played her first two years of collegiate hockey for DIII SUNY Buffalo State College.
Last season’s captain, junior Kat Jones, has been impressed with Lackey in the limited time she’s spent with her.
“I was very impressed with Ky [Lackey],” Jones said. “She always works hard; she never lets up. No laziness. She impressed me.”
After the top-scorers of Jones, junior Danielle Dupont and sophomore Andi Main, 11 forwards combined to score just 24 goals last season.
Adding experienced players like Lackey, sophomore transfers Jillian Ketchum and Tristin Stetson will be key to making depth a strength for the Devils this season.
“I think back to last year when we were playing hard games like Adrian or McKendree our first line was out there every 30 seconds and that’s really hard to be productive by the end of the game when your first line is absolutely dead tired,” Ellis said. “I’m really excited to hopefully be able to roll three or four lines and in difficult situations and really have that depth this year.”
In fact, seven of the eleven new players added to the roster are forwards, including two-way player Hayley Martin.
Last season, ASU’s defense scored 30% of the team’s total goals. Ellis emphasized that the team was happy with their defensive core and wanted to use this year’s recruiting class as a way to balance the scoring sheet.
“If you look at our stats from previous years, our defenders are in the top scoring,” Ellis said. “We want to add more depth to the forward group and be able to have point producing forwards. We want every point of the ice to be touched.”
Adding new players to a team is challenging in a normal year, but it’s even more of a hurdle to overcome in 2020.
Simple things such as knowing your teammates name can be problematic with limited face-to-face interaction. That’s why team bonding has become even more crucial.
“We’ve been doing some team bonding, we did team bonding last week on Tuesday, and it was kind of just some exercises to make sure everybody knew everyone’s name,” Jones said. “Because I know coach was saying if you’re making a pass to someone and you’re going to call for it, how do you know who you’re calling to?”
The team has also kept touch via Zoom and group chat to keep the conversation going while they try to make up for the time lost.
Jones added that each player participated in a challenge of biking, running, swimming, etc. at least one hundred miles by the end of the summer. Just another way the club was able to learn more about each other and hold everyone accountable.
With so much uncertainty, one thing remains clear, this will be a year defined by how each team deals with the virus. A challenge that will be greater than the games themselves.
“Whoever is going to be the best this year is really who does COVID best,” Ellis said. “Which team does COVID best? If we’re using that as an excuse, we’ve already lost.”
