Sun Devils set to visit No. 1 Denver

(Photo: Marina Williams/WCSN)

The Sun Devils schedule to start the 2024-2025 campaign has been a difficult one with constant travel and squaring off against ranked opponents in six of their first 12 games, but none were as tall of an order as it will be this weekend.

This weekend, ASU (4-7-1, 1-3 NCHC) travels to Denver, Colorado to face No. 1 Denver (12-0-0, 2-0). The Sun Devils are 2-9-1 all-time against the Pioneers, with last year’s series ending in a series split at Mullett Arena that featured a graduate forward Tyler Gratton game-winning goal in overtime.

“We obviously know how good they are and how difficult it can be to play in their rink in the elevation so we’re just making sure that we’re getting prepared right now on the ice and then soon we’ll do pre-scout and get ready for whatever they throw at us,” graduate forward Ty Jackson said.

Coming off its first conference win in program history, ASU looks to turn around their fortunes in conference play. Despite being 1-3 in National Collegiate Hockey Conference (NCHC) play, the Sun Devils are outshooting its opponents 159-87 in those four games. Scoring had been an issue this season, but ASU finally broke through against Omaha last weekend and scored three goals off rebounds from the very front of the net.

“We’ve had some really tough defensive games and we’ve been struggling to score a little bit so it always feels nice to get one in,” Jackson said. “Before this past weekend we still have been doing a lot of good things, it just wasn’t going in for us.”

The Sun Devils will need to manufacture goals in a similar fashion this weekend against the Pioneers. Denver is ranked No. 1 for a reason, they are the defending national champions, still have yet to lose this season and possess a lineup that boasts 13 draft picks, including 2024 12th overall pick Zeev Buium.

Denver is averaging 4.8 goals per game while only allowing 1.4. The power play is running at a lethal 34.6% success rate, while the penalty kill is at 91.9%. Denver also controls the faceoff dot at a 55.7% clip. The Pioneers ranks top-10 in the nation in all of these categories.

Individually, the Pioneers are led by sophomore forward Sam Harris and junior forward Aidan Thompson, who are the top-two goal scorers in the country with 10 and nine goals respectively. Denver also has three of the top four point-getters in the country, with senior forward Jack Devine leading with 21 points, Thompson in second with 20 points and Harris tied for third with 16 points.

“They just make plays all over the ice and they work it really well as a five-man unit,” Jackson said. “I always think that good defensive teams, their forwards are really well structured in the zone and good offensive teams or defensemen are really good at creating offense and they have that all over the ice like their forwards compete in the defensive zone and then the offensive zone their defensemen are so active. It’s really hard to cover guys as a winger or a centerman because your guy is constantly moving.”

Between the pipes, senior goaltender Matt Davis leads the way with a 1.46 goals against average and a .937 save percentage, both marks ranking in the top ten in the nation. Goals will be difficult to come by for the Sun Devils, but it is not something that the team has not faced before.

“I think we have been clicking,” Jackson said. “It’s just like the puck hasn’t been going in for us really like we’ve had lots of good opportunities and a lot of the lines have had really good looks so I think we have been clicking. We’re just running in a hot goaltending and we’re just getting a bit unlucky and then this past weekend luckily we finally had that luck turnaround a bit and we scored some goals.”

Despite the drastic difference in records and goal scoring numbers, ASU still averages more shots on goal per game than Denver does. On average, the Sun Devils fire off 35.3 shots per game while the Pioneers are averaging 33.4 per game.

This weekend will be the biggest test for ASU this season and it will only be the first of two series against Denver. The Sun Devils will have the weekend of Thanksgiving off before returning to action at Mullett Arena Dec. 6 and 7 against Minnesota Duluth. ASU looks to gain some momentum going into the break.

Game one of the series is at 7 p.m. MST Friday and the series will wrap up at 6 p.m MST Saturday.