COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – The No. 12/13 Arizona State ice hockey team (10-3-1) hits the road for the second time this season to face off against future conference opponent, Colorado College (7-5-0) on Friday, Dec. 1 and Saturday, Dec. 2. Both games are available to stream on NCHC.tv for a subscription fee or on the airwaves at Fox Sports 910AM radio.
This will be the fifth series meeting between the Sun Devils and the Tigers. ASU leads the all-time record between the two at 5-2-1 and has swept CC in two out of the four previous series matchups. The last time CC visited Mullett Arena, ASU dominated the weekend and completed the sweep with 5-3 and 6-1 wins.
ASU faced two future NCHC foes earlier this season as the team traveled to Miami in October and hosted then-No. 2 Denver in early November. The Sun Devils are 1-2-1 against NCHC teams this year.
Last weekend, the Sun Devils concluded their eight-game homestand with a series against the No. 9 Providence Friars. ASU earned an overtime win in game one and suffered only their second loss at home, and third of the season, in the Sunday afternoon rematch. ASU improved its all-time Mullett Arena overtime record to 7-0-0 with Dylan Jackson's game winner on Friday night.
SUN DEVIL NOTABLES
RANKED DEVILS
ASU continues its seventh-straight week in the national polls. After earning the series sweep against Alaska Anchorage at Mullett Arena two weeks ago, ASU moved up a spot to land at No. 13 in both polls. This past weekend, ASU split a close series with No. 9 Providence and subsequently moved up to No. 12 and No. 13 in the USCHO.com and USA Hockey/The Rink Live polls, respectively. The highest national poll ranking ever received by the Sun Devils was No. 9 on Feb. 17, 2020 in the 2019-20 season.
SUPER SENIOR CLASS
The senior class is made up of Matthew Kopperud, Ty and Dylan Jackson, Lukas Sillinger, Ryan O'Reilly, Tim Lovell, Alex Young, and Benji Eckerle combine to be ASU's largest point scoring class this season. The seniors scored 29 of ASU's 48 goals this season and assisted on nearly half of all goals (41 of 84). Kopperud and Dylan Jackson lead the class in goal scoring with seven apiece. Sillinger leads the entire team in points and assists with 17 and 12, respectively. Multiple seniors are instrumental in ASU's special teams, especially the power play unit. Fourteen of ASU's 17 power play goals were scored by members of the senior class.
BETWEEN THE PIPES
After six-straight starts, TJ Semptimphelter continues to hold his spot in the national rankings. Semptimphelter is tied for seventh best goaltender winning percentage in the country at .727. The junior goaltender also tallied his 18th and 19th career 30-plus save nights against No. 9 Providence. All of his 30-plus save nights have all come from ranked opponents so far this season.
QUOTES OF THE WEEK
Head Coach Greg Powers and Associate Coach Alex Hicks
Greg Powers:
On the comparison between this season vs last season:
"Well I think the starts last year to this year, we lost those close games in a couple of those overtime games especially early at Duluth and Bemidji State.. you win those two games and it's a very similar record to this year. So the starts aren't really all that much different. We've done a better job at winning the close games, the one-goal games, the overtime games. This time last year, we had just beaten Minnesota in overtime, we felt really good about the next segment of the season and then obviously we were incredibly injury-plagued. So this year we feel better about where we are because the record is better and now we get the opportunity to play four out of six on the road before the semester break. It's a great opportunity, the pairwise rewards you for winning on the road and we have the opportunity to go do that."
On the factors for the road struggles within the last year:
"I think that last year was our first year where we weren't really good on the road. In our successful years we've been very good on the road because we had very few home games. The COVID year you can completely wipe out. Last year we just didn't get it done, we lost a lot of close games on the road, we had a young team - we had the fifth-youngest team in college hockey, and I think that had a lot to do with it. This year, we have a much more experienced team and a veteran group of guys who have been in every situation with guys like Gratton and Chambers and Tabakin that we brought in, and certainly the guys who have been with us have gone through a lot of experience to hopefully get it done in situations like we're going to go into this weekend."
On the latter half of this season and playing different competition than the first half:
"It's a fair question, but the honest answer is from the start of the year when we played Arizona, we need to establish our identity no matter who we play. We truly believe that. It doesn't matter who you play, the schedule is the schedule. We have to play to win, lose or draw no matter where we're at from a pairwise standpoint, but we still control our destiny in every way. We're still in a really good place, the pairwise will correct itself. We just have to continue to stack wins and if we do, no matter where we play or who we play, we'll be where we want to be and that's in the tournament at the end of the season."
Alex Hicks:
On the power play:
"I think it's always personnel. If it was the coach, then it would be the same every year. You do the same thing, you have kind of the same structure, the same mindset, same details. They're doing exactly what they're supposed to do, for the most part. We try to let them be as creative as possible within a structure but, it all comes down to them (the student-athletes on the power play units). They've done a good job and scored a lot of goals. It always fluctuates year to year, month to month, but they've done a good job."
On the challenges of allowing players to be creative with the power play:
"Absolutely. Typically, the more creative they get, the more mistakes they make. You want to allow them to make a play when it's there but you also want to have principles that you put in place where they need to do certain things if certain things happen. It's a fine line, it's frustrating at times for them and me and the entire staff, but you kind of want to balance it out."
On the power plays vs. Providence:
"I thought we were actually pretty good. I think two of the power plays on Friday were cut in half or were cut down by 10 seconds so if you look statistically, we only really had about four and a half chances to score. I think we still created a lot of chances, it's just a matter of if the puck goes in, when it does or when it doesn't. If you look specifically at numbers and stats, you're going to be frustrated with it because you're failing 70 to 80% of the time. It's a matter of if we're producing good quality chances for them in their zone, that's what I look for versus the stat of what our percentage is."
This will be the fifth series meeting between the Sun Devils and the Tigers. ASU leads the all-time record between the two at 5-2-1 and has swept CC in two out of the four previous series matchups. The last time CC visited Mullett Arena, ASU dominated the weekend and completed the sweep with 5-3 and 6-1 wins.
ASU faced two future NCHC foes earlier this season as the team traveled to Miami in October and hosted then-No. 2 Denver in early November. The Sun Devils are 1-2-1 against NCHC teams this year.
Last weekend, the Sun Devils concluded their eight-game homestand with a series against the No. 9 Providence Friars. ASU earned an overtime win in game one and suffered only their second loss at home, and third of the season, in the Sunday afternoon rematch. ASU improved its all-time Mullett Arena overtime record to 7-0-0 with Dylan Jackson's game winner on Friday night.
SUN DEVIL NOTABLES
- Three Sun Devils currently hold a multi-game point streak after this weekend's competition. Senior forward Dylan Jackson's power play goal extended his point-scoring streak to four games. With assists on Sunday afternoon, Tim Lovell extended his point streak to six games and Matthew Kopperud extended his to five games.
- ASU currently averages 3.43 goals per game, tied for 11th in the nation. The Sun Devils also rank fifth in power play percentage at 26.6.
- ASU's 17 power play goals is tied for second in the NCAA.
RANKED DEVILS
ASU continues its seventh-straight week in the national polls. After earning the series sweep against Alaska Anchorage at Mullett Arena two weeks ago, ASU moved up a spot to land at No. 13 in both polls. This past weekend, ASU split a close series with No. 9 Providence and subsequently moved up to No. 12 and No. 13 in the USCHO.com and USA Hockey/The Rink Live polls, respectively. The highest national poll ranking ever received by the Sun Devils was No. 9 on Feb. 17, 2020 in the 2019-20 season.
SUPER SENIOR CLASS
The senior class is made up of Matthew Kopperud, Ty and Dylan Jackson, Lukas Sillinger, Ryan O'Reilly, Tim Lovell, Alex Young, and Benji Eckerle combine to be ASU's largest point scoring class this season. The seniors scored 29 of ASU's 48 goals this season and assisted on nearly half of all goals (41 of 84). Kopperud and Dylan Jackson lead the class in goal scoring with seven apiece. Sillinger leads the entire team in points and assists with 17 and 12, respectively. Multiple seniors are instrumental in ASU's special teams, especially the power play unit. Fourteen of ASU's 17 power play goals were scored by members of the senior class.
BETWEEN THE PIPES
After six-straight starts, TJ Semptimphelter continues to hold his spot in the national rankings. Semptimphelter is tied for seventh best goaltender winning percentage in the country at .727. The junior goaltender also tallied his 18th and 19th career 30-plus save nights against No. 9 Providence. All of his 30-plus save nights have all come from ranked opponents so far this season.
QUOTES OF THE WEEK
Head Coach Greg Powers and Associate Coach Alex Hicks
Greg Powers:
On the comparison between this season vs last season:
"Well I think the starts last year to this year, we lost those close games in a couple of those overtime games especially early at Duluth and Bemidji State.. you win those two games and it's a very similar record to this year. So the starts aren't really all that much different. We've done a better job at winning the close games, the one-goal games, the overtime games. This time last year, we had just beaten Minnesota in overtime, we felt really good about the next segment of the season and then obviously we were incredibly injury-plagued. So this year we feel better about where we are because the record is better and now we get the opportunity to play four out of six on the road before the semester break. It's a great opportunity, the pairwise rewards you for winning on the road and we have the opportunity to go do that."
On the factors for the road struggles within the last year:
"I think that last year was our first year where we weren't really good on the road. In our successful years we've been very good on the road because we had very few home games. The COVID year you can completely wipe out. Last year we just didn't get it done, we lost a lot of close games on the road, we had a young team - we had the fifth-youngest team in college hockey, and I think that had a lot to do with it. This year, we have a much more experienced team and a veteran group of guys who have been in every situation with guys like Gratton and Chambers and Tabakin that we brought in, and certainly the guys who have been with us have gone through a lot of experience to hopefully get it done in situations like we're going to go into this weekend."
On the latter half of this season and playing different competition than the first half:
"It's a fair question, but the honest answer is from the start of the year when we played Arizona, we need to establish our identity no matter who we play. We truly believe that. It doesn't matter who you play, the schedule is the schedule. We have to play to win, lose or draw no matter where we're at from a pairwise standpoint, but we still control our destiny in every way. We're still in a really good place, the pairwise will correct itself. We just have to continue to stack wins and if we do, no matter where we play or who we play, we'll be where we want to be and that's in the tournament at the end of the season."
Alex Hicks:
On the power play:
"I think it's always personnel. If it was the coach, then it would be the same every year. You do the same thing, you have kind of the same structure, the same mindset, same details. They're doing exactly what they're supposed to do, for the most part. We try to let them be as creative as possible within a structure but, it all comes down to them (the student-athletes on the power play units). They've done a good job and scored a lot of goals. It always fluctuates year to year, month to month, but they've done a good job."
On the challenges of allowing players to be creative with the power play:
"Absolutely. Typically, the more creative they get, the more mistakes they make. You want to allow them to make a play when it's there but you also want to have principles that you put in place where they need to do certain things if certain things happen. It's a fine line, it's frustrating at times for them and me and the entire staff, but you kind of want to balance it out."
On the power plays vs. Providence:
"I thought we were actually pretty good. I think two of the power plays on Friday were cut in half or were cut down by 10 seconds so if you look statistically, we only really had about four and a half chances to score. I think we still created a lot of chances, it's just a matter of if the puck goes in, when it does or when it doesn't. If you look specifically at numbers and stats, you're going to be frustrated with it because you're failing 70 to 80% of the time. It's a matter of if we're producing good quality chances for them in their zone, that's what I look for versus the stat of what our percentage is."