TEMPE – The puck drops on the 2025-26 season for the No. 14 Arizona State ice hockey team this weekend as the Sun Devils take on No. 5 Penn State on Oct. 3-4. The top-15 matchup is set for 7 p.m. MST on Friday and 5 p.m. MST on Saturday at Mullett Arena. Both games will air live nationally on NHL Network, locally on FOX 10 and stream live on NCHC.tv.
ASU will honor one of the best to wear the Maroon and Gold as it retires goaltender Joey Daccord’s (‘16-’19) number 35 jersey in a pregame ceremony ahead of Friday night’s puck drop.
Coming off a storybook season in its first year of NCHC play after previously being independent, ASU continues to put the college hockey world on notice. In 2024, the Sun Devils were ranked eighth in the NCHC preseason media polls and tied for 20th in the NCAA. After a 21-14-2 season and second-place finish in league standings, ASU enters 2025-26 ranked 14th in the nation and in the top four in the NCHC preseason polls, including two votes to finish atop the conference.
The ranked showdown in the desert is a battle between two programs with a history rooted in the collegiate club hockey ranks. Penn State’s (0-0-0, 0-0-0 Big Ten) program turned Division I in 2013-14, followed by ASU (0-0-0, 0-0-0 NCHC) two years later in anticipation of the 2015-16 season. Last season, Penn State reached the Frozen Four before falling to Boston University, 3-1, in the semifinals.
“It’s awesome that we’re playing such a good team with even more talent than they had last year,” said Sun Devil Hockey head coach Greg Powers. “It’s gonna be a great barometer to see where we are, and it’s going to be great for our fans and everybody that’s going to be in the building. I know it’s gonna be a tough ticket, but they’re going to see college hockey’s very best right away out of the gates this year.”
How to tune in
ASU’s own Tyler Paley and Alex Coil will bring the game to the airwaves on a national stage on NHL Network and locally on FOX10 and FOX10-KUTP. Both games also stream on NCHC.tv for a subscription fee. Listen to Alex and Tyler on the radio with Sun Devil Hockey’s radio partner, FoxSports910AM.
Joey Daccord’s jersey retirement
Sun Devil Hockey will retire Joey Daccord’s No. 35 jersey to honor his storied career in maroon and gold during its home opener on October 3, 2025. Sun Devil Athletics will celebrate Daccord with a pregame ceremony and banner unveiling before taking on Penn State for the first game of the 2025-26 season. Daccord will attend Friday night’s ceremony and game against the Nittany Lions.
“He was the second-ever official visit in the history of our program,” said Powers. “I was still coaching the club team when he visited, and we made the announcement. That’s how unique a situation this was. He wasn’t drafted yet. We hadn’t played a Division I game. We met in what you could deem a janitor’s closet at Oceanside Ice Arena, and we talked about the vision for this place and how he could help us build it. Our mantra is to Be The Tradition. You’ll come here, and you get to set the standard. You get to be the tradition and be the guy that in 20 years said, ‘hey, I helped build that. That was me who helped build that with all my best friends.’ That’s what that mantra means. He’s living proof of everything we want that to be.”
Joey Daccord spent three seasons in the desert representing the Sun Devils from 2016 to 2019. He played 82 total games and finished his final season as a Sun Devil with a 21-13-1 record, .926 save percentage and 2.35 goals against average. In his final season with ASU, he backstopped the Sun Devils to their first NCAA Tournament appearance. Daccord owns school records for goalie appearances, starts, saves and shutouts. He graduated from ASU in 2020 with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration.
Drafted 199th overall in the 2015 NHL Draft by the Ottawa Senators, Daccord became the first ASU player to sign an NHL entry-level contract and the first to play in an NHL game in program history. Entering his seventh season in the NHL and fifth year as a member of the Seattle Kraken, Daccord has a career save percentage of .906 and a 2.76 goals against average in The Show.
In 2022, Daccord set his sights on giving back to the Sun Devil Community that supported him throughout his time at ASU and collaborated with the Sun Devil Club to create Dacs’ House. The Joey Daccord Community Impact Fund gifts families of children undergoing medical treatment a once-in-a-lifetime experience with Sun Devil Hockey. Families attend ASU games in a suite adorned with gear and memories from Daccord’s career, including a special message from the former Sun Devil standout before each game.
NCHC’s top returning scorer
Heading into his senior year, forward Bennett Schimek looks to build on his career-best season after transferring to ASU in 2024. He is the NCHC’s highest point-scoring player returning to college for 2025-26. The Minnesota native finished his junior year campaign doubling his point totals from his first two collegiate seasons at Providence, ending with 15 goals and 22 assists in 35 games. Schimek was also in the top 10 in points in the NCHC with 37, and in the top 10 in goals, with 15 in the year.
Pro turned Devil
Jack Beck played 40 professional games between the American Hockey League (AHL) and ECHL last season and joined the Sun Devils in late September after the NCAA ruled on his eligibility.
Beck was drafted 168th overall (6th round) of the 2021 NHL Entry Draft by the Calgary Flames. He has since waived his draft rights and is a free agent. The 22-year-old left-handed winger joins ASU after a point-per-game performance in his first year of professional hockey.
According to the NCAA Eligibility Center, Beck will have three seasons of eligibility to play in five years. As part of the NCAA’s delayed enrollment rules, Beck is not eligible to compete in the first six games of the 2025-26 season.
Beck lost one season of eligibility as a penalty under the NCAA delayed enrollment rules. If an athlete plays seven or more games in another league once delayed enrollment has begun, one season of eligibility is removed. The games played by Beck in the AHL and ECHL, dating from his 21st birthday on April 12, 2024, through April 11, 2025, cost Jack a season of eligibility. The six-game suspension for 2025-26 comes into play to address the six games played by Beck from April 12, 2025 (his 22nd birthday) through his initial enrollment at Arizona State University in September 2025.
Devils at the Draft
Cullen Potter made program history on opening night of the 2025 NHL Draft when the Calgary Flames selected him 32nd overall. He became the hockey program’s highest draft pick and first NHL first-rounder in school history. Potter's selection in the first round means ASU produced first-round picks in the MLB, NBA, NFL, WNBA, and NHL drafts.
The Minnesota native excelled in his rookie season in maroon and gold, tallying 13 goals and nine assists for 22 total points in 35 games played. He finished fourth on the team in goals and eighth in points. His 13 goals were second among NCHC rookies. His 81 shots on goal led rookies in NCHC action, while he helped ASU finish in second place in its inaugural NCHC season. He earned NCHC All-Rookie Team honors after compiling 15 points in 22 conference games, with his nine goals third among freshmen.
The next day at the draft, incoming freshman Ben Kevan was selected by the New Jersey Devils in the second round (63rd overall).
Sun Devils in the NHL Draft
Drafted true Sun Devils
2025
Cullen Potter: Calgary Flames, round 1, pick 32
Ben Kevan: New Jersey Devils, round 2, pick 63
Justin Kipkie: Minnesota Wild, round 5, pick 141
2021
Josh Doan*: Arizona Coyotes, round 2, pick 37
Ty Murchison*: Philadelphia Flyers, round 5, pick 98
2019
Cole Brady^: New Jersey Devils, round 5, pick 127
2018
Demetrios Koumontzis*: Calgary Flames, round 4, pick 108
Ryan O’Reilly^: Detroit Red Wings, round 4, pick 98
2015
Joey Daccord*: Ottawa Senators, round 7, pick 199
Drafted players who transferred to ASU
2022
Cruz Lucius: Carolina Hurricanes (traded to Pittsburgh Penguins), round 4, pick 124
2020
Artem Shlaine*: New Jersey Devils, round 5, pick 130
Noah Beck*: 2020 St. Louis Blues, round 7, pick 194
Alex Young*: 2020 San Jose Sharks, round 7, pick 196
2019
Robert Mastrosimone*: Detroit Red Wings, round 2, pick 54
2015
Jack Becker*: Boston Bruins, round 4, pick 195
^ Transferred to a different program before graduating
*Graduated/turned pro
In the crease
Connor Hasley transferred to ASU in the summer of 2025 from Bentley University. The senior goaltender spent three seasons with the Falcons, boasting a .925 save percentage and 1.96 goals against average, including a 21-13-2 record last year. Hasley also posted 11 shutouts, three of which came in the postseason, and made 41 saves against Boston College in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
He’s backed by Samuel Urban, who rose from the juniors after three seasons with the Sioux City Musketeers. The Slovakian freshman appeared in 40 games in the 2024-25 season with a 22-15-1 record, 2.96 goals against average and .899 save percentage. 
CHL pipeline
Before the CHL rule change was a sure thing, Braxton Whitehead (Regina Pats) and the Sun Devils were the first to take a risk and make an official move, shaking up the hockey world in anticipation of the results from the a class action lawsuit, Rylan Masterson v. NCAA, which accused the NCAA of illegally preventing Canadian Hockey League (CHL) players from competing for American university teams.
“I’ve always thought that rule was antiquated in so many ways,” said Sun Devil Hockey Head Coach Greg Powers. “With Braxton, I simply believed in getting ahead of the curve by handicapping the situation. Change was coming, and it felt right. It’s going to make college hockey so much better.”
ASU now boasts seven players who competed previously in the CHL, including Sean McGurn (London, OHL), Austin Zemlak (Tri-City, WHL), Ty Nash (Edmonton, WHL), Justin Cloutier (Soo, OHL), Sam Alfano (Erie, OHL), and Whitehead (Regina, WHL). Before turning pro and competing in the ECHL and AHL, Jack Beck played for the Soo Greyhounds (OHL).
History vs. Penn State
The Sun Devils have taken on the Nittany Lions eight times in the 2016-17 season. ASU has been on the road for three of the four series, holding a 1-7 record. The state schools faced off most recently in December of the 2020 season, where both matchups pushed to overtime to determine a winner. The Sun Devils’ lone victory also came in overtime in the 2018-19 season as Johnny Walker’s game-winning goal handed the then-No. 6 Nittany Lions their first loss of the season.
This season, the Nittany Lions are bolstered by Gavin McKenna, the consensus No. 1 overall pick for the 2026 NHL Draft. Like several players on ASU’s roster, McKenna most recently skated for Medicine Hat of the WHL, leading them to a WHL Championship and Memorial Cup Finals berth. McKenna was named the WHL and CHL Player of the Year after a resume that included 173 points in 76 games combined from the regular season, playoffs, and Memorial Cup competition.
Penn State also returns junior Aiden Fink, a top-10 Hobey Baker finalist in 2024-25 and second-team All-American. Fink executed a massive sophomore campaign with 23 goals and 30 assists for 53 points, which led the Big Ten and ranked fourth in the NCAA. 
Quotes from Powers' weekly media availability
On facing Penn State to open the season
“It's awesome that we’re playing such a good team, a team from last year with even more talent than they had than they did. So it’s gonna be a great barometer to see where we are, but it’s gonna be great for our fans and everybody that’s going to be in the building. I know it’s gonna be a tough ticket, but they’re going to see college hockey’s very best right away out of the gates this year.”
On the growth of the Sun Devil Hockey fanbase
“It’s really awesome. Everything trickles downhill from these guys (football team) here when they’re successful. It just adds to the notoriety. It adds to everything being really positive around the athletic department as a whole.
Obviously, we’re all behind them and appreciate the momentum that they’re giving all of us. I guess this whole thing about activating the Valley is a collective with all of us. It's a collective movement within the entire department. It’s not just them. Certainly, we’re doing our part. We’re at 102% capacity last year. I fully intend to make sure we’re sold out every night again this year, and it becomes contagious. Winning breeds winning; it’s as simple as that. Success breeds success. So it’s really cool to be part of it.”
On how impactful the freshmen will be on Day One
“They are going to be hugely important. I think what you’ll see with our roster builds, moving forward, is that we’ve been easily, probably one of the top portal teams, if not the top portal team in the country, for the last few years. We’re still going to go to it, but a lot less.
In hockey, you recruit kids committed three, sometimes four years out. So it’s taken a while for our young recruiting to catch up to ensure that when they come in, we’re at the level where we don’t have a huge drop off, and they’re caught up with the program.
You’re going to see bigger freshman classes and more talented freshman classes moving forward from us. We’re always going to go and supplement our needs out of the portal because it’s there and we’re successful out of it, but you’re going to see a lot less of it. And I think even more importantly, in today’s college landscape, it’s hard for fan bases to really build true affinity to teams and players. Because of the turnover, it’s so volatile.
We want to be a program where we don’t have a lot of turnover. We don’t send a lot of guys into the portal. It’s all about retention of those really elite freshman classes to make sure that they’re getting everything that they need, and they develop, and we’re fulfilling our end of the bargain so they stay. That’s our goal: To build classes that our fans can become attached to for four years, like how college sports used to be. If we can give that to our fan base, we’ll be really proud of that.”
On what areas he's most confident in with his team
“I think just the depth of our team is so dramatic. We’re so dramatically deeper than any team we’ve had. I said a couple of times that I think this year’s fourth line could be most of our team’s second line, for sure, all of our team’s third. And fifth could be the fourth. We will have guys in the stands Friday night that would never have dreamed of coming out of the lineup. When you go from 18 to 26 scholarships, that’s the luxury you have. You have 26 full-ride kids. We had 18 scholarships in the past, but it was an equivalency sport. So really only six to eight kids were on full rides. The rest was split up and managed like a salary cap to build your roster. Now we’re just so much deeper, but it’s made practices incredibly competitive. It will be a lot on the staff to manage egos and personalities, keep kids happy, and keep them driven and supportive. That’s on us to do, and I’m confident we will.
So I love our depth, love everything about that. We just have a lot of new faces. We’ve looked really good in practice, but until the bright lights are on, games are on TV, and they’re playing in front of sold-out crowds, you don’t know how kids will perform under that microscope and pressure. But I have full confidence that our guys are going to be good.
Our D-core is very young. Our oldest D (defensemen) is a junior in Anthony Dowd. We have no seniors on the back end. We have four freshmen, three sophomores and Dowder. Obviously, Tucker (Ness) is kind of a swing guy up and back, but he’s our only senior. So, a really young D-core, really talented D-core. But, what’s exciting is it’s a D-core that can grow and continue to grow into the future with.”
On Ty Nash and the recruitment process for him
“Ty was a kid we recruited the first time around, and he decided to go into the Western League, when the rule was obviously that you’re foregoing your college eligibility to go play in the CHL.
So one of the first things that happened when the CHL rule change happened is I know his father, Tyson, well, and Tyson and I connected. I actually bumped into Tyson on the way to a road trip last year. I was in the Amex lounge. We were there early because our flight was delayed. So I went to the Amex lounge at Sky Harbor, and Tyson was in there with his wife, and I was like, ‘Hey, I think we’re a week away from this happening. What do you think if it happens?’ And he said, ‘Holy, yeah, like you would be all over it.’ So it happened, and I bumped into him and his wife, and the rest is history.
And then our other local kid, Logan Morell, will be a huge piece this year. He had a great freshman season at Michigan Tech last year. We’re really lucky to have both of them.”
On whether their physicality and speed will be a test for Penn State
“We have a lot of skill, a lot of speed. But north, south, and just the size and then some beef, our roster is built more effectively in that way. We know we have the skill to beat anybody, but it’s got to be will before skill. It’s got to be will over skill. We’ve got to wear teams down. We got to play them the right way. We have to manage pucks. We have to play straight lines, do all the right things, and then let our skill take over. Then, let them start to feel it and make mistakes, and then our skill can take over. We have both.
Last year, we certainly had will, but we were undersized. We had kids that could really play skilled hockey, and I think we’d use your word more ‘finesse’ than anything. We probably had too much of that for sustainable success, which is why we had such a poor start to the year.
You’re injury-prone when you’re a lot smaller, which was a huge problem for us. So the depth, the size, the balance, you’re gonna see the top six of really extreme skill. And then you’re gonna get a third line of guys that just play hard, and the fourth line of guys that play even harder. I’m excited about what the balance of the group really brings more than anything, but we got everything you need.”
On how Anthony Dowd has stepped up in the leadership role
“He’s our oldest guy in the back end. He’s going to be in every night. We needed him to come in and really take that role by the horns. Over the first month and a half, be a vocal guy, be a guy that brings passion and energy every day, and that’s when he’s at his best. Dowder was a no-brainer to get a letter to. I think he’s one of those kids who gets a letter and elevates from here to here. Then he feels more responsible for doing all the right things. He’s always at his best when he's vocal and bringing the bench energy. Even when he’s not on the ice, he’s kind of skating by the guys, getting them going. It will elevate his play to where we know it can get us to help win.”
On what it means to the organization to see Joey Daccord’s jersey go up in the rafters
“So cool. He was the second-ever official visit in the history of our program. He and I met on his visit, and I spent the whole visit with him because, at the time, I don’t think we had another coach hired. When he visited, I was still coaching the club team, and we made the announcement. That’s how unique a situation this was. And he wasn’t drafted yet. When he visited, we hadn’t played a Division One game at this level yet. We met in what you could deem a janitor’s closet at Oceanside, and we talked about what the vision for this place could be and how he could help us build it, and that’s exactly what it was.
Our mantra is to be the tradition. You’ll come here, and you get to set the standard. You get to be the tradition and be the guy that in 20 years said, ‘hey, I helped build that. That was me who helped build that with all my best friends.’ That’s what that mantra means. He’s living proof of everything we want that to be. So then he went on and did what he did.
He’s just a kid who loves this program. He loves this institution. Not a day goes by that he’s not grateful for his experience here. He’s such a great ambassador for ASU in this institution, as a whole. And I’ll never forget that I called him to tell him we would do it. It was early in the summer, and he was just so beyond ecstatic in a typical Dax fashion. He’s made a custom jacket for himself to wear on the ice, and he’s just a beauty. We’re really proud he’s ours.”
On how the team is built for conference play
“I think it’s built for sustainable success over a long season. College hockey is the longest team season. In all of college sports, I mean, we start the first day of class and we end, if we make it, at the end of April. It’s a marathon. So if you can build yourself deep and sustainable to absorb because guys are going to go down, it’s a physical sport, so you’ll miss guys. So the ability to have so much depth is huge.
Right now, we have arguably our best all-around player who has to sit out our first six games because of an NCAA ruling, and I’m not even fazed by it because we’re deep. We’re really deep. It’s next man up. It’s another opportunity for a really good player that otherwise wouldn’t be in. And when he’s back, it will be an unbelievable piece. He teases us every day of practice, right now we have to wait six games.”
On the growth of the program and having a top-15 matchup to open the season
“It’s really cool, and we’ve been close to that program since we made the jump. They were actually really kind enough to play us. The year before, our club team won the national championship. We went to Penn State, played the D-I team, and beat them the second night. That was, in my opinion, the turning point of hockey on this campus. It really got the attention of a lot of people when a club team beat a Division I team. It’s a big deal. It’s a huge deal.
You have a team full of non-scholarship kids playing and competing against a team full of scholarship kids, so it happened, and it is what it is. They were in their early days. Certainly, they’re a much different program now, but they gave us the opportunity, and really, since that moment, we haven’t looked back, and it’s been build, build, build. Our builds are completely different. Penn State has done an unbelievable job. They are what I call the ideal model. They had their arena and conference, their staff coached the club team for a year before they ever started, and they played a hybrid year. They had the ideal model where they went like this.
Our model was a realistic model. We played at Oceanside for almost a decade. We had to get our house in order, and we learned a lot of things along the way. We were independent for a decade. I think both models prove to the hockey community that if you have the right people in place, you can figure out a way to make them work. But we have a ton of respect for their program. Like you said, from the same origins, they’ve done everything the right way, and we have a ton of respect for them.”
On how it makes it challenging to prepare for multiple projected first-round picks at Penn State
“We know how good they’re going to be talent-wise. They’re going to be as good as we face all year. But we play in a great league full of first-round picks on teams and full of players that we think are just as good. We will have an immense amount of respect for what they put on the ice. We will not be afraid of what we see on the ice. I can promise you that.”
On recruiting to his system of recruiting based on the best players and what they do well
“Great question, the answer to that is we recruit like-minded kids. Our identity is relentless, right? So whatever you do, just do it relentlessly. If it’s a skill game about scoring goals, then you’d better jump pucks, get bump pucks, turn pucks over, and have a good stick. But whatever you do, if you go to the net relentlessly, you do it relentlessly. If you defend, you do it relentlessly. So we try to find kids with a like-minded approach to everything they do. In academics, do it relentlessly. The gym, everything. So those are the kind of kids that we recruit.
I think this year’s roster. The way it’s built. It’s getting easier for us to build the type of roster we want because now we have our house in order. We have the league, it’s the best league in college hockey. It’s won seven of the last nine national championships. We have a facility that any kid would die to play in. We have an unbelievable fan base that sells out every game. We have a great staff in place who have done an unbelievable job. So we have, over the course of the decade, checked all these boxes to where now we can get and build a kind of roster, we don’t have to settle. We love every kid who’s played here, but sometimes you get what you get when playing a 700-seat ice rink and you’re independent. You get what you get, right? You have got to make the most of what you get, and we did a great job. We don’t have to do that anymore.
On honoring the history and thoughts on recognizing the past players of the program in the hallway
“They did an unbelievable job and huge credit to Andrew Matheson and Paige Shacklett, our SID, who helped with that project. It was my brainchild, and then they just made it even better. We have All-Americans, we have NCAA Statistical leaders, and we have conference stuff now. We had four guys that were all-league last year, and Potsy was on the rookie team, and (Ty) Murishison won the defense, so we have all this stuff that we can fill the walls with and brand the right way.
But the biggest piece that was important to me is making sure every kid that walks through that hallway doesn’t forget what the guys before them built and what they had to go through in order to get us to where we are. Because at the end of the day, no kid on our roster would have come to our program in those early days. Not one. They want to play in a league. They want an arena. They want all the things that the really high-level elite players want. So it’s important to me that we don’t forget those founding fathers and everything they did to help get us to where we are today, and for our guys who had to walk past that. That’s the biggest thing for me.”
On the Big Ten conference compared to the NCHC
They’re right there. You could look on paper in the Big Ten and say they have even more talent (than the NCHC). It just hasn’t translated into national championships. They haven’t had any since they formed the Big Ten, which is crazy because every team in that league is so good. But Hockey East is also another unbelievable conference. I think the way that it’s built out west and the way we build our rosters is such a physical war every night (in the NCHC). If you can get through that and you're that battle tested by the time you get to single elimination hockey, you're just so ready for whatever you see, and you’ve seen that with the NCHC.”
On almost being an “honorary” member of the Big Ten due to the COVID season
“Every once in a while. That was a crazy season. None of us will ever forget when you’re living in a hotel for four months and don’t really get to come home. But, it was an unbelievable season, and our fans are reaping the benefits. The founding fathers of the program that did things that I think a lot of kids wouldn’t have done — that’s one of the seasons. But for us, our agreement with the Big Ten to do an all-road season during a pandemic was that everybody owed us a trip back. Minnesota came back, and Michigan came back last year. So we have Penn State coming in this year, Notre Dame coming in this year. Ohio State is coming in this year, and that’s a great opportunity for our fans. Name-brand programs and institutions come to Arizona State, so we still have Michigan State and Wisconsin left, and we’re working on those.”
On Cruz Lucius stepping into a leadership role and his season outlook
“We know how good he is. He was Wisconsin’s leading scorer two years in a row. He’s such a gifted player and was up against it last year. He had no offseason. He had no training camp. He had really no practice leading into his first games. He was healthy, cleared, maybe practiced 3 or 4 times, and threw him into the fire against North Dakota, and really he did the best he could. He was just so behind by the time he got in. This summer, he put in the work, and he’s in better shape than he's ever been in. He’s been an unbelievable leader for the guys. He’s in his fourth year of college hockey, and I still stand by what I said. I think he’s easily one of the best and most talented players this program has ever had, and I’m excited for him to show that.”
On approaching the goalie tandem
“I think we have two really good goalies that look like #1s every day in practice in Haz (Connor Hasley) and Urbs (Samuel Urban). You gotta go with the experience to start. Hasley will be in the net Friday night, and it’s really his net to keep.
That’s the beauty of having such a really talented freshman like Sam. That pushes him every day in practice because Haz sees it. He’s like, ‘holy crap, this kid can play.’ So, Sam will get his time. He’ll get his starts, and then obviously by the time we head into next season, he’s in a position, confidence-wise and experience-wise, where we know he’s the guy to take over for the next few years. So it’s a really good setup where we have a senior and a freshman to transition into the future with. But a guy that’s clearly good enough to get us to where we need to go right now.”
On early-season chemistry
“Chemistry is really built off the ice more than anything. When you have 17 new faces, the biggest part of my job is to make sure that we instill and pass our culture on to every new player that comes into our program, and they understand what the standard is every day, on, but most importantly, off the ice. When they’re away from the rink and what they’re doing away from the rink, it makes them understand that everything they do in their life translates to success. The hockey part should be the easiest part. If you take care of what you need to take care of away from the rink, the rink will work itself out. That’s the easy part of their lives, playing the game they love and are really good at.
But, the best thing we did was name Kyle Smolen and Bennett Schimek our co-captains, because they have done an unbelievable job really gelling this group together. You hear the kids say it all the time. We’ve got a tight-knit group. It’s a really close group, but these guys really are. Like, I don’t think they do anything apart. I think they’re all together all the time. At the end of the day, that matters most to me. You develop that chemistry and support away from the rink when we’re not around. It just comes naturally in the moment.”
On the biggest thing to look for this weekend
“Just that will factor. Neither team is going to be perfect. We’re going to make mistakes. They’re going to make mistakes. We’re both going into Sunday looking at film going, ‘wow, we got a lot to work on.’ But at the end of the day, when you play this early, what’s really unique and crazy about college hockey is that we’re not even at full hours, and we’re playing a game Friday night. At least for programs that follow the rules, like we do, you have to be precise and selective about what you work on. Your time is so limited with your players leading into your first contest. It’s pretty crazy how that rolls out that way. So you’re going to make mistakes. It’s not going to be perfect. They’re not going to understand exactly how you want to play. But if you drill home your identity, which is that relentless work, everything that we do and your will outmatches theirs, we like our chances against anybody because we’re really talented.”