Sun Devils miss NCHC Tournament after being swept by Denver

(Photo: Sun Devil Athletics)

DENVER – On March 21, 2025, Arizona State skated off the ice in St. Paul, Minnesota, with a gloomy and defeated look following a 4-2 loss in the Frozen Faceoff to the No. 3 seed Denver. While the loss ended the Sun Devils’ season and NCAA Tournament hopes, the success of the season served as a beacon of hope for future endeavors.

The Sun Devils went into this past weekend with the ability to control their own destiny, sitting one point ahead of Omaha in the conference standings. Instead of kicking into a new gear and leading the team when they needed it most, the Sun Devils veterans fumbled.

With just under 10 minutes remaining and the game being tied, senior forward Bennett Schimek attempted to pass the puck deep into the Denver zone. Instead of the puck slapping his stick, the only thing he made contact with was the cold breeze coming from the ice.

As Denver forward Samu Salminen grabbed the puck and moved toward the ASU goal, Schimek stopped. He didn’t skate back or try to poke the puck away. Rather, he just glided at the red line while Salminen shot the puck into the nylon past senior goaltender Connor Hasley.

Just as last season gave hope on what ASU’s future could be, this season-ending loss to the Pioneers raised more questions than it did give any form of positivity. As the Sun Devils left the ice for the final time this year, they skated off in disappointment, thinking of what could’ve been.

Just one year removed from finishing second in the NCHC, ASU (14-21-1, 7-16-1 NCHC) fell all the way down to ninth place after falling to No. 8 Denver 4-1, missing the NCHC Tournament entirely. By getting swept along with an Omaha win on Friday, ASU finds itself watching the tournament from the comfort of the beautiful Tempe weather.

The Sun Devils began the season with higher expectations than they have ever had in program history, as they came into the season ranked 14th in the nation, their highest all-time ranking. Head coach Greg Powers even said before the season that he believed that ASU was a top-10 team in the country.

A few months later, all the expectations and rankings were gone. What was left was an almost broken team. After their Feb. 6 loss to St. Cloud State, Powers alluded to the fact that he “couldn’t get through to this team.”

Schimek’s lackluster effort in helping end the Sun Devils playoff hopes serves as an analogy for what the whole season has been. In the biggest game of the season against Omaha, Powers – who did not speak with student media who traveled to Denver after either game this weekend – even questioned whether his team was trying or not.

“As soon as [Omaha] scored their first goal, our guys just kind of stopped playing,” Powers said last week. “I couldn’t tell you why. It’s been a weird year, and it’s just a group that we can’t seem to whip through adversity. Ultimately, that’s on me, and I take accountability for that.”

For senior forwards Cruz Lucius and Bennett Schimek, defenseman Tucker Ness, and goaltender Connor Hasley, this year served as an opportunity to be what forward Ryan Kirwan and defenseman Noah Beck were to last year’s team.

All of them had their bright spots this season, with Schimek and Lucius finishing in the top three point scorers in the conference. Despite that, when the Sun Devils needed the best from their leaders, they were nowhere to be found.

A major difference between the team last year that was so successful versus this year’s team was Powers’ approach to building the roster. Last season, Powers took the option to build the team around older players from the transfer portal.

Players like Kirwin and Beck added experience and made huge impacts on the Sun Devils’ inaugural NCHC success. With an older team, ASU’s experienced roster shone through in key moments to help push the team past any adversity it faced.

This year, Powers elected to go with a young roster, saying the portal “was not as strong” compared to past years. This year’s roster started with 11 freshmen, the most since ASU’s first year as an NCAA Division I program in the 2015-2016 season..

With youth sprinkled throughout his team, Powers and his team went through several growing pains throughout the season in tight situations. Unfortunately for the Sun Devils, tight situations are where many of their losses came from. The poor management of games led ASU to lose 16 games in which the game entered the third period with a goal difference of one or less, including both games in the sweep by Denver.

Along with game management issues, Powers was also unable to maintain a full roster throughout the season. While ASU lost key pieces in freshman forward Jack Beck and sophomore forward Cullen Potter to season-ending injuries earlier in the year, three players also chose to leave the team prior to the season ending. The thin roster left the Sun Devils without a healthy scratch for the majority of the season.

The season being over leaves many questions for the future of the Sun Devils team, such as whether Powers will be able to retain some of his top talent, such as Potter or freshman forward Carmelo Crandell. Those questions will be answered in the months to come, but what is certain is that the Sun Devils will be watching postseason hockey from home.