Hockey

No. 12 Sun Devils hits the road to take on future NCHC opponent Colorado College

\The past four weekends have provided nothing but excitement for No. 12 Arizona State Men’s Hockey. The Sun Devils just completed a 6-2 eight-game homestand, sweeping Stonehill and Alaska Anchorage, and earning overtime wins in series splits against then-No. 2 Denver and then-No. 9 Providence. Through 14 games, the Sun Devils have compiled a 10-3-1 record, their best start in program history.

Now, it’s time for them to hit the road for just the second time this season, as they visit a future conference opponent Colorado College.

Following a 13-22 season in 2022-23, Colorado College enters the weekend at 7-5 overall and 4-4 at home. All four home losses have come against ranked teams: then-No. 2 Denver (now No. 3) and then-No. 16 Western Michigan (now No. 14). However, the Tigers will be fresh off a bye week from the Thanksgiving holiday.

The Sun Devils swept the Tigers in a two-game series at Mullett Arena last season, outscoring the Tigers 11-4 collectively. The series saw both the largest margin of victory between the two schools of 6-1 in the Saturday contest, and the smallest victory of 5-3 in Friday’s series opener. ASU leads the all-time series with a 5-2-1 record.

At this time last season, ASU sat at 8-7 with two defining wins over then-No. 6 North Dakota in Vegas and an overtime win at home over then-No. 2 Minnesota. After a promising start, the season went downhill from there, as several key injuries for the Sun Devils resulted in a 10-14 record after Thanksgiving and finished the year three games under .500. This season, they have started the year 10-3-1, have earned defining wins over multiple ranked teams, and swept four teams at Mullett.

“We lost those close games in a couple of those overtime games, especially early at Duluth and Bemidji State,” ASU head coach Greg Powers said on Tuesday. “If you win those two games, it’s a very similar record to this year. So, the starts aren’t really all that different. We’ve just done a better job of winning the close games. … This year, we feel better about where we are because the record is better, and now we get the opportunity to go out and play four of the next six on the road before the semester break.”

Senior forward Lukas Sillinger leads the stat sheet for the Sun Devils with five goals and a team-leading 12 assists, totaling a team-high 17 points. Senior forwards Matthew Kopperud and Dylan Jackson are currently tied for team lead in goals with seven. All but two ASU skaters have points on the season. Jackson, Kopperud, and senior defenseman Tim Lovell will all look to extend their multi-game point streaks this weekend.

Sophomore forwards Gleb Veremyev and Noah Laba lead the way for the Tigers with 12 and 11 points, respectively. Both are tied for a team-leading six goals on the season. Expect to see sophomore goalie Kaidan Mbereko between the pipes for the Tigers, who has played in 12 of 14 games this season, earning 312 saves for a .907 save percentage. He’s allowed 11 power-play goals on the season.

ASU’s power-play goal unit currently ranks sixth in the nation, scoring 17 goals on 64 attempts, equaling 26.6%. Kopperud is the team leader in power-play goals with five. ASU was 3-for-7 on the power-play against the Tigers last season.

“This group has done exactly what they’re supposed to do,” associate coach and power-play coach Alex Hicks said. “They’re finishing plays and doing what they’re told, for the most part. We’ve tried to let them be as creative as possible within a structure, but it all comes down to them.”

“If you look specifically at numbers and stats, you’re going to be frustrated because you’re failing 70 to 80% of the time. It’s a matter of producing quality chances and keeping them in their zone. That’s what I look for. We were only 1-for-9 this last weekend, but I thought we looked pretty good.” Hicks added.

The Tigers are the last NCHC team the Sun Devils will see this season. With just six road trips on the calendar, the trip to Colorado Springs is a major opportunity for the Sun Devils to boost their resume and make a jump in the Pairwise rankings.

“In our successful years, we were very good on the road because we had to be,” Powers said. “We had very few home games. Last year, we just didn’t get it done. We lost a lot of close games on the road and had the fifth-youngest team in college hockey. I think that had a lot to do with it. This year, we are a much more experienced team and have a veteran group of guys that have been in every situation with guys like [graduate transfer forwards Tyler] Gratton and [Brian] Chambers, and [graduate transfer defenseman Brandon] Tabakin.”

Game One will begin at 7 p.m. MST on Friday, with Game Two an hour earlier on Saturday. Both games can be streamed with a subscription on NCHC TV and for free on Fox Sports 910 AM on the Sun Devil Radio Network.