{"id":99620,"date":"2019-10-05T11:34:49","date_gmt":"2019-10-05T16:34:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/?p=94777"},"modified":"2020-08-24T11:40:09","modified_gmt":"2020-08-24T16:40:09","slug":"game-of-the-week-arizona-state-opens-season-against-mercyhurst-with-a-better-deeper-team-looking-for-another-ncaa-run","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/2019\/10\/05\/game-of-the-week-arizona-state-opens-season-against-mercyhurst-with-a-better-deeper-team-looking-for-another-ncaa-run\/","title":{"rendered":"GAME OF THE WEEK: Arizona State opens season against Mercyhurst with a “better, deeper team” looking for another NCAA run"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Johnny<\/a>
Johnny Walker returns to Arizona State a season after leading the Sun Devils in scoring and to an NCAA tournament berth (Photo: Omar Phillips)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A year ago on the calendar, if you weren\u2019t inside the locker room of the Arizona State Sun Devils, you may not have had a clue that there was about to be a new national contender in college hockey.<\/p>\n

The Sun Devils, in just their third full season as an NCAA Division I varsity program, had shown some signs of success. But few understood that this team was about to become one that would compete for \u2013 and earn \u2013 a spot in the NCAA tournament.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor a year or two there, we were the layup as we were building our program,\u201d admitted head coach Greg Powers.<\/p>\n

But a 21-win season, an NCAA berth and series sweeps against teams like Boston College, Princeton and Omaha opened plenty of eyes. More importantly, it set the stage for what Powers hopes it a benchmark on which the team can build.<\/p>\n

For Powers, he understands that this season ahead is about backing up what the team did last season. They were led by arguably the best goaltender in the nation, first-team all-America Joey Daccord, who left after three seasons at Arizona State to sign a professional contract.<\/p>\n

The image that Daccord was the entire team a year ago is one that Powers and his club will battle this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to prove to everybody that last year we didn\u2019t just take a big step because we had a good goalie,\u201d said Powers. \u201cWe took a big step because we\u2019re doing the right thing. It\u2019s everybody chipping in. It\u2019s not just one guy. We just need to keep pushing the rock forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

That rock won\u2019t be light as this season, unlike the past, the Sun Devils have absolutely zero shot of sneaking up on opponents. Ranked 20th in the preseason USCHO.com poll, Arizona State will more likely have the target on its back rather than enter each game as the upstart underdog.<\/p>\n

Powers believes this year\u2019s team is actually better than last year\u2019s NCAA squad, but that remains an untested theory as the Sun Devils enter the USCHO Game of the Week on Saturday and Sunday against an always-dangerous Mercyhurst squad from Atlantic Hockey.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe think we have a better team, a deeper team, a more balanced team,\u201d Powers said. \u201cThere\u2019s more skill and talent, more goal scoring. Way more depth on our back end. We didn\u2019t lose any of the young D and we added two highly-skilled freshmen.\u201d<\/p>\n

One focus for the season is discipline. Last year, Arizona State averaged 15.1 penalty minutes per game, second in the nation behind Alaska. While their penalty kill was solid, ranking seventh in the nation at 86.6 percent efficiency, Powers would rather that unit remain as untested a possible.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe big focus for us is to be a more disciplined team and go on the power play more than we put the other team on the power play,\u201d said Powers. \u201cThe maturity of the team and everything we\u2019ve gone through that\u2019s something we should be able to do. That\u2019s within our control.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve worked really hard on special teams. That\u2019s the goal: to be on the power play more than we\u2019re on the kill.\u201d<\/p>\n

Arizona State\u2019s near instant success since joining the NCAA ranks is something that should be lauded. The Sun Devils continue to look for a permanent home in a league, something that should be aided if the school\u2019s on-campus rink opens on schedule in the fall of 2021.<\/p>\n

For Powers, he takes pride in last season not just for the results but for the buzz his team created in, by far, the most western destination in college hockey.<\/p>\n

Later this season, Arizona State \u00a0will head further west to Irvine, Calif., and host a \u201chome\u201d series against Harvard. An event like that could help put this program \u2013 and the possibility of growing this game on the west coast \u2013 on full display.<\/p>\n

Powers takes a lot of pride in such an event and what it could potentially do for college hockey.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a big alumni base out there [in the greater Los Angeles area],\u201d said Powers. \u201cBut it\u2019s great to expose the brand. And when I say the brand we\u2019re not just talking ASU, we\u2019re talking college hockey.<\/p>\n

\u201cPlaying in Southern California with such a great program and a great institution like Harvard, which is going to be really good again. It\u2019s just a great opportunity.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to be a pioneer and grow the game out here. We\u2019re going to call up schools and invite them and say, \u2018Hey come look at this, come see this.\u2019 This is a neutral site game in a 3,000-seat arena that I think we\u2019re going to pack. We want teams to know you can have this on your campus.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe approach, if I\u2019m those schools, should be, \u2018If they can do it, why can\u2019t we?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Johnny Walker returns to Arizona State a season after leading the Sun Devils in scoring and to an NCAA tournament berth (Photo: Omar Phillips)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":108703,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[4,935],"tags":[812],"coauthors":[800],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nGAME OF THE WEEK: Arizona State opens season against Mercyhurst with a "better, deeper team" looking for another NCAA run - College Hockey | USCHO.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Johnny Walker returns to Arizona State a season after leading the Sun Devils in scoring and to an NCAA tournament berth (Photo: Omar Phillips)\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99620\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"GAME OF THE WEEK: Arizona State opens season against Mercyhurst with a "better, deeper team" looking for another NCAA run - 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