No. 11 Arizona State hockey awaits big series at home vs. Colorado College

No. 11 Arizona State hockey is making a statement in its first season in the National Collegiate Hockey Conference and has another massive series awaiting at home with No. 19 Colorado College. 

ASU is 8-4-0 in conference play and 13-8-1 overall. It has gone after three of the NCHC’s traditional powers. The Sun Devils have swept Denver, St. Cloud State, and Minnesota Duluth.

The Sun Devils sit atop the NCHC standings with 25 points, one ahead of Western Michigan. However, the conference is tight with talent as the first and eighth place are separated by just 11 points. 

Colorado College is seventh in the conference but previously swept ASU in early November. Both teams have changed from the first meeting. ASU was missing several key players, while the Tigers didn’t have top-scorer Noah Laba, who leads with 17 points (5 goals, 12 assists). 

“They’re going to be more loaded up than when we played them,” ASU coach Greg Powers said. “We were missing Bennett Schimek, Lukas Sillinger, Cruz Lucius, Charlie Schoen. We were missing a lot of guys. Artem Shlaine wasn’t in full game shape yet when we played up there. We’re a much different team now than when we played up there, but they’re going to come in here hungry and there’s a lot at stake this weekend.” 

Schimek has changed the makeup of ASU’s offense with 21 points, which ties him for second-most. In the last six games played, Schimek has tallied a point in all but one for seven points in the last five games. 

Shlaine has found his footing since the Colorado College series and has posted eight points (4-4-8) over his past four games. He ranks second on the team in goals (9), while Penn State transfer Ryan Kirwan leads with 14 goals. Defenseman Noah Beck has a team-leading 22 points. 

Goaltender Gibson Homer has been solid with a 2.11 goals against average and a .927 save percentage. Homer started three of the last four games, including back-to-back games at St. Cloud State. However, Powers expects to start Luke Pavicich this weekend to split duties with Homer.

Pavicich has a 2.49 goals against average and a .913 save percentage. Powers didn’t start him in St. Cloud because the Olympic-sized rink had difficult angles for him to learn quickly and he kept Homer in the second game because of the crucial situation.

ASU’s 3.45 goals per game are the fourth-most in the country while its 2.5 goals against rank inside the top 20. Powers’ club has outscored its opponents 76-55 and its power play (26.8%) ranks ninth. 

The power play helped the Sun Devils pull off a big road sweep at St. Cloud last weekend as they went 5-for-9 (55.5%) in the series. 

ASU has won 10 of its past 11, earning the third-highest ranking this week in program history. 

The Sun Devils cracked the top 10 twice during the 2019-20 season, coming in at No. 10 (Feb. 10) and No. 9 (Feb. 17). This is the third time ASU has seen a No. 11 in front of its logo too, Feb. 3, 2020, and Jan. 8, 2024, being the others. ASU was ranked 12th three different times last season as well. 

Puck drop for the series is at 7 p.m. on Friday and 5 p.m. on Saturday at Mullett Arena.

(This story has been updated to add or change a gallery.)