COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. -- After a long-anticipated off-season for No. 20 Arizona State ice hockey, the Sun Devils are cleared for takeoff in a season-opening battle at the Air Force Academy this weekend, Oct. 4-5. Puck drop is set for 6:05 p.m. AZT on both Friday and Saturday and streamed on FloHockey for a pay-per-view fee. Fans in the local Colorado area can watch Friday's game on AltitudeTV.
Tyler Paley and Alex Coil return to the airwaves on Fox Sports 910 as the voices of Sun Devil Hockey Radio. The pair will broadcast every ASU game this season, both home and away. Tune in on Fox Sports 910AM or the iHeart radio app 30 minutes prior to puck drop to catch the pregame show including interviews with ASU players.
ASU is coming off of its most winning season in program history with 24 wins through 38 games played (24-8-6). In its final season as an independent team, ASU continued to make its mark on the college hockey landscape with statement wins over eventual national champions Denver and four nationally ranked opponents. The Sun Devils boasted the sixth-best winning percentage in the country (.711).
WATCH LIST
- Lukas Sillinger broke the ASU single season record for points during the 2023-24 season with 48 (11G, 37A).
- Cullen Potter makes his collegiate debut as the second-youngest active skater in the NCAA (17 years old until Jan. 10, 2025).
- Gibson Homer sees his first action of the year after winning the starting spot at the end of the 2023-24 season. The 6-5, 210 netminder finished the regular season with the best save percentage in college hockey.
HISTORY VS. THE FALCONS
Over the past eight seasons, ASU and Air Force have faced off seven times and ASU holds a 4-3-0 lead in the series dating back to 2016. The two teams last played on Jan. 7, 2023 in the Desert Hockey Classic and ASU beat Air Force, 2-0, at Mullett Arena. Despite consistently traveling to Colorado to play against Colorado College and Denver, ASU hasn't played at Cadet Ice Arena since Oct. 18-19, 2019. In that series, ASU left college hockey's highest altitude rink with 3-0 and 5-2 wins.
QUOTES OF THE WEEK
Head Coach Greg Powers:
On facing Air Force on the road to start the season
"I think the biggest thing with a team like Air Force is that you know they're going to compete. You know how hard they're going to play and they're going to test your will. So our guys are going to have to bring a really, really high compete level in every zone and every facet of the game for us to go up there and have success. They're a tough team at home. Altitude is always an issue. So it's going to be a tough test right away."
On the importance of starting the season with a strong non-conference performance
"Since I got back from NCHC Media Day a few weeks ago, we haven't talked about the league. We're not going to talk about the league until we're done with non-conference. I think our last non-conference opponent is Northern Michigan. So we're focused on an eight game kind of segment and season. We know from looking at how teams get into the NCAA Tournament how important non-conference is and getting through it at about .500. It's going to be tough and we have Air Force, which is a really tough place to play. Michigan here, then at Providence, then at Northern Michigan. So six of the eight on the road. It's a great opportunity because you get so much more Pairwise credit for road wins. So, we get through non-conference and view it as a success, it's really gonna set up the rest of our season."
SILLINGER'S CAREER SETS STANDARD
Heading into the 2024-25 season, graduate forward Lukas Sillinger sails on top of active career leaders in multiple statistical categories. With 130 points in the past four years, Sillinger sits above all other NCAA scorers in career points. His 79 career assists also set the benchmark for college hockey players. The left winger's 43 collegiate goals is tied for third in the NCAA and just three behind the category leader. At 136 college games played, he's just eight behind category leader and NCHC foe Connor Caponi's with 143 at Denver. Sillinger's 48 points in 2023-24 set a new record for points in a single season by a Sun Devil. He finished the last game of the season with a four-point night and the program's first-ever natural hat trick.
HEAVY-HITTING TRANSFERS
Clarkson graduate transfer Noah Beck has 15 career goals from the blue line which ranks second in active career goals by a defenseman. Six of his 15 goals were on the man-advantage tied fourth in career power play goals by a defensemen.
BETWEEN THE PIPES
Gibson Homer completed his redshirt sophomore season on top of the NCAA charts with the best save percentage in college hockey. He reached 14 games played on the year and boasted a 2.04 goals against average and .931 save percentage complete with a 8-3-2 record. The rookie-no-more is joined by three goaltenders in anticipation of the 2024-25 season. He is most notably joined by Luke Pavicich who played one season at UMass Lowell and two at UMass. The senior holds a 12-22-4 record with two shutout wins through 38 starts and 44 games played. After being called up from ASU's ACHA team last year, Chase Hamm makes his return to the team for a second stint. Freshman Zakari Brice becomes the youngest netminder on the roster.
YOUNG GUN
ASU's highly touted rookie Cullen Potter is the second-youngest player in the NCAA. The U.S. National Development Program product is 17 years old and turns 18 on Jan. 10, 2025. He's only seven days older than the youngest player in college hockey (Sascha Boumedienne, Boston University).
GRADUATE
The 2024-25 Sun Devil Hockey roster carries six players who are in graduate students which is fourth-most in the NCAA. ASU graduates include Noah Beck, Artem Shlaine, Benji Eckerle, Ty Jackson, Dylan Jackson, and Lukas Sillinger.
TRUE DEVIL
Greg Powers is one of 24 NCAA coaches to hold the helm of his alma mater. The Indiana native graduated from Arizona State in 1999 with a degree in Journalism and Mass Communications from the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism. Powers is also one of nine head coaches at Arizona State University who went to ASU.
CONFERENCE STRENGTH
For the first time in its 12-year existence, the NCHC has eight teams nationally ranked, as NCHC teams landed eight spots in the 2024-25 USCHO.com Top 20 Preseason Poll revealed on Monday. The eight ranked NCHC teams lead all conferences by at least two teams, with 88.9 percent of the Conference (8 of 9 teams) ranked in the USCHO Preseason Poll. NCHC teams make up 38.1 percent of the total teams in the Preseason Poll. Hockey East is second with six ranked teams, followed by the Big Ten with five and ECAC Hockey with two.
Tyler Paley and Alex Coil return to the airwaves on Fox Sports 910 as the voices of Sun Devil Hockey Radio. The pair will broadcast every ASU game this season, both home and away. Tune in on Fox Sports 910AM or the iHeart radio app 30 minutes prior to puck drop to catch the pregame show including interviews with ASU players.
ASU is coming off of its most winning season in program history with 24 wins through 38 games played (24-8-6). In its final season as an independent team, ASU continued to make its mark on the college hockey landscape with statement wins over eventual national champions Denver and four nationally ranked opponents. The Sun Devils boasted the sixth-best winning percentage in the country (.711).
WATCH LIST
- Lukas Sillinger broke the ASU single season record for points during the 2023-24 season with 48 (11G, 37A).
- Cullen Potter makes his collegiate debut as the second-youngest active skater in the NCAA (17 years old until Jan. 10, 2025).
- Gibson Homer sees his first action of the year after winning the starting spot at the end of the 2023-24 season. The 6-5, 210 netminder finished the regular season with the best save percentage in college hockey.
HISTORY VS. THE FALCONS
Over the past eight seasons, ASU and Air Force have faced off seven times and ASU holds a 4-3-0 lead in the series dating back to 2016. The two teams last played on Jan. 7, 2023 in the Desert Hockey Classic and ASU beat Air Force, 2-0, at Mullett Arena. Despite consistently traveling to Colorado to play against Colorado College and Denver, ASU hasn't played at Cadet Ice Arena since Oct. 18-19, 2019. In that series, ASU left college hockey's highest altitude rink with 3-0 and 5-2 wins.
QUOTES OF THE WEEK
Head Coach Greg Powers:
On facing Air Force on the road to start the season
"I think the biggest thing with a team like Air Force is that you know they're going to compete. You know how hard they're going to play and they're going to test your will. So our guys are going to have to bring a really, really high compete level in every zone and every facet of the game for us to go up there and have success. They're a tough team at home. Altitude is always an issue. So it's going to be a tough test right away."
On the importance of starting the season with a strong non-conference performance
"Since I got back from NCHC Media Day a few weeks ago, we haven't talked about the league. We're not going to talk about the league until we're done with non-conference. I think our last non-conference opponent is Northern Michigan. So we're focused on an eight game kind of segment and season. We know from looking at how teams get into the NCAA Tournament how important non-conference is and getting through it at about .500. It's going to be tough and we have Air Force, which is a really tough place to play. Michigan here, then at Providence, then at Northern Michigan. So six of the eight on the road. It's a great opportunity because you get so much more Pairwise credit for road wins. So, we get through non-conference and view it as a success, it's really gonna set up the rest of our season."
SILLINGER'S CAREER SETS STANDARD
Heading into the 2024-25 season, graduate forward Lukas Sillinger sails on top of active career leaders in multiple statistical categories. With 130 points in the past four years, Sillinger sits above all other NCAA scorers in career points. His 79 career assists also set the benchmark for college hockey players. The left winger's 43 collegiate goals is tied for third in the NCAA and just three behind the category leader. At 136 college games played, he's just eight behind category leader and NCHC foe Connor Caponi's with 143 at Denver. Sillinger's 48 points in 2023-24 set a new record for points in a single season by a Sun Devil. He finished the last game of the season with a four-point night and the program's first-ever natural hat trick.
HEAVY-HITTING TRANSFERS
Clarkson graduate transfer Noah Beck has 15 career goals from the blue line which ranks second in active career goals by a defenseman. Six of his 15 goals were on the man-advantage tied fourth in career power play goals by a defensemen.
BETWEEN THE PIPES
Gibson Homer completed his redshirt sophomore season on top of the NCAA charts with the best save percentage in college hockey. He reached 14 games played on the year and boasted a 2.04 goals against average and .931 save percentage complete with a 8-3-2 record. The rookie-no-more is joined by three goaltenders in anticipation of the 2024-25 season. He is most notably joined by Luke Pavicich who played one season at UMass Lowell and two at UMass. The senior holds a 12-22-4 record with two shutout wins through 38 starts and 44 games played. After being called up from ASU's ACHA team last year, Chase Hamm makes his return to the team for a second stint. Freshman Zakari Brice becomes the youngest netminder on the roster.
YOUNG GUN
ASU's highly touted rookie Cullen Potter is the second-youngest player in the NCAA. The U.S. National Development Program product is 17 years old and turns 18 on Jan. 10, 2025. He's only seven days older than the youngest player in college hockey (Sascha Boumedienne, Boston University).
GRADUATE
The 2024-25 Sun Devil Hockey roster carries six players who are in graduate students which is fourth-most in the NCAA. ASU graduates include Noah Beck, Artem Shlaine, Benji Eckerle, Ty Jackson, Dylan Jackson, and Lukas Sillinger.
TRUE DEVIL
Greg Powers is one of 24 NCAA coaches to hold the helm of his alma mater. The Indiana native graduated from Arizona State in 1999 with a degree in Journalism and Mass Communications from the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism. Powers is also one of nine head coaches at Arizona State University who went to ASU.
CONFERENCE STRENGTH
For the first time in its 12-year existence, the NCHC has eight teams nationally ranked, as NCHC teams landed eight spots in the 2024-25 USCHO.com Top 20 Preseason Poll revealed on Monday. The eight ranked NCHC teams lead all conferences by at least two teams, with 88.9 percent of the Conference (8 of 9 teams) ranked in the USCHO Preseason Poll. NCHC teams make up 38.1 percent of the total teams in the Preseason Poll. Hockey East is second with six ranked teams, followed by the Big Ten with five and ECAC Hockey with two.