(Photo: Hailey Rogalski/WCSN)
Tempe, AZ – Hockey continues its run at Mullett Arena this weekend as No.16 Sun Devil Hockey (16-5-5) gets set to take on Augustana University (6-11-3) for a two-game weekend set.
This weekend provides a chance for ASU to bounce back from last weekend in which the team was swept against now-ranked No.14 Cornell. Now, the Sun Devils welcome the Vikings for their first trip to Tempe.
What is Augustana?
Augustana is a private Lutheran University located in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and is home to the Vikings. The Vikings are a brand new team to college hockey, dropping the puck for the first time this year. In October of 2021, Augustana announced that they would add a hockey program and broke ground on their new Arena – Midco Arena, a 3,000+ seat barn set to open mid-January 2024. The Vikings became the first Division I hockey program in South Dakota.
Leading the Vikings through their first year is head coach Garrett Raboin. Raboin is a St. Cloud State graduate (2010) and was announced as the inaugural head coach in April 2022. Raboin spent the previous four seasons under Minnesota Gophers’ head coach, Bob Motzko. During that time, he was part of a Gopher team that went to the NCAA Division I Frozen Four. Raboin was also more recently part of the 2024 USA World Juniors coaching Staff that just won gold in Sweden.
A month after announcing Raboin as its first head coach, Augustana Hockey was granted membership into the Central Collegiate Hockey Association (CCHA). While being an official voting member of the CCHA now, Augustana won’t play a full conference schedule in 2025-26.
Currently, they will play a 16-game transitional schedule (one series against each CCHA member school) this season and next. However, they are immediately eligible for the NCAA Tournament.
Despite a lackluster 6-11-3 record, the Vikings have put together a pretty impressive start to their career given the circumstances. Their first-ever win as a team came at home against Bowling Green 3-2; they picked the sweep-winning game two a day later. Just a week later, they went on the road to Colorado for a single game series against, at the time, No. 2 Denver and Colorado College. Augustana came away with a 5-5 tie and ended up winning 6-5 in a shootout (however, those do not count in college hockey) over Denver. They then followed it up with a 4-3 win over undefeated Colorado College at the time.
The Vikings have also split with Lindenwood on the road, tied and beat Northern Michigan, split on the road against Alaska Fairbanks, and most recently tied and lost in a series at home with Minnesota State.
Since the series against the Mavericks, the Vikings have had a week off before now pointing the plane down south for their series against Arizona State.
Junior forward Luke Mobley leads the way for the Vikings in the goal category, with eight genos on the year. Controlling the other two categories (assists and points) is fifth-year forward Ryan Naumovski – 10 apples and 15 points.
On the special teams this year, Augsustan sits at 28th nationally on the power play, converting 80.6% of the time. When down a man, the Vikings are killing it off 80.6% of the time for 38th best nationally. In comparison, ASU sits 6th best in the nation on the man advantage at 26.9; however, the ASU power play only converted once last weekend amongst six attempts. When killing off a penalty, the Sun Devils have a success rate of 83.3%, tied for 17th best in the nation.
Puck drop is set Jan. 19 and 20 at 7 P.M. MST.
