(Photo: Sammi Maxwell/WCSN)
Tempe, AZ – The home stand continues for No. 14 Arizona State Men’s Hockey (7-2-1) as they prepare to welcome a fellow independent team, the Alaska Anchorage Seawolves (5-6-1), for a two-game set this weekend.
This will be the third series of a long eight-game home stand for the Sun Devils, who come into the weekend coming off a split with at the time No. 2 Denver. The Sun Devils nabbed a 6-5 victory in OT in game one but dropped game two 8-4. This weekend kicks off another long-standing series with the Alaska schools.
The University of Alaska Anchorage, located in Anchorage, Alaska, is home to the Seawolves, one of two independent college hockey teams in Alaska. The other is the University of Alaska Fairbanks, home to the Nanooks – a team on ASU’s schedule this year as well. Every year that Arizona State has played one or both of the Alaska schools, it typically features a home-and-home match-up, meaning that ASU goes to Alaska and that school also comes to Tempe, and this year is no different.
The Seawolves are under the direction of head coach Matt Shasby. Shasby was named head coach in October of 2021 and is an alum of the UAA and the hockey program. He played 127 games with the Seawolves from 1999 to 2003. After that, he spent some time in the East Coast Hockey League (ECHL), mainly with the Alaska Aces.
Shasby is tasked with returning the Seawolves back to a winning record – something they last did in 2013-14 when they went 18-16-4 under head coach Matt Thomas. This year, they are off to a 5-6-1 start that saw wins over UMass Lowell in OT (series split), Lake Superior State (series split), Air Force (series split), Penn State (series split), and most recently Robert Morris (series split). The only series the Seawolves could not get a split against was their in-state rival, the Nanooks.
Leading the team with seven goals and 12 points, junior forward Maximilion Helgeson has been the Seawolves best scorer.. Right behind him with 12 points of his own is senior forward Ben Almquist, who has notched four goals and eight assists – 11 players have scored a goal so far this season.
Special teams for Alaska Anchorage have yet to be a strong suit to start the year. Their power play sits at 39th best nationally, converting only 17.5% of the time, and when down a man, they are only killing off the penalty 76.9% of the time, which is tied for 43rd best nationally.
For comparison, the Sun Devils have a power play that is top 10 in the country at 8th and converting 27.7% of the time. The penalty kill is closer to Alaska Anchorage tied at 39th, converting 78.4%.
This series comes at a similar time to when ASU played Stonehill to begin November. When the Sun Devils played Stonehill, they had No. 2 Denver the following week. ASU plays Alaska Anchorage this weekend and has No. 5 Providence coming over Thanksgiving weekend. After the Stonehill series, head coach Greg Powers felt like his team was looking ahead to Denver rather than focusing on the series at hand. This weekend, ASU will need to focus on the series at hand rather than look ahead to No.5 Providence.
A helping factor in focusing on the series at hand might be that the Seawolves are a familiar team to the Sun Devils, they have been playing each other since ASU joined the NCAA ranks back in 2015. In 2015, they played one game against each other, then didn’t play again until 2019. ASU has had the better hand all time, with an overall record of 5-2 against UAA.
The most recent series between the two was the last season on the road. ASU traveled to Anchorage late in the year for their final road contest of the season and came home with a split as they won the first game 5-0 but lost the second and most recent game 4-3. However, before that loss, ASU had gotten all five of their wins in a row, the sole loss being the game played in 2015.
This weekend’s series kicks off Friday, Nov. 17, at 7 p.m. MST and is followed up on Sunday, Nov. 19, with a 1 p.m. MST puck drop.
