Before ASU hockey went on its four-game road trip that started nearly three weeks ago, head coach Greg Powers made a change in leadership.
Sophomore forward Anthony Croston was promoted to alternate captain.
“I had no idea honestly,” he said. "It was a big surprise.”
At the start of the year, Sun Devil athletics announced that Dylan Hollman would be the team’s captain, and the alternate captains would be sophomore forward Louie Rowe and senior forward Ryan Belonger. Powers said Belonger lost his ‘A’ near the start of the season, and the team went with just one alternate captain until they promoted Croston.
“Coach brought us all into the locker room and talked about how we need a little help on the leadership side,” Croston said. “He named me alternate captain. It was pretty surprising and an awesome feeling.”
Powers said that Croston fits the ‘lead by example’ model to a tee.
“He just does everything right, on the ice, off the ice,” Powers said. “Both seasons we’ve been NCAA, he’s shown up and been our ironman, been in the best shape. He’s at the top of every fitness test. He just does everything right. He prepares the right way, he acts the right way, he plays the right way.”
I am so impressed with the speed of @Anthony_Croston. The sophomore on a line with Steenn Pasichnuk and Louis Rowe. 2-3 on face-offs so far.
— Weston DeWitt (@WestonDeWitt) October 16, 2016
Hollman said there were a variety of reasons why Croston was promoted.
“On the ice, he’s probably one of our most consistent players overall,” he said. “He’s a guy that, I think, not only everyone gets along with but everyone respects. I think you ask any person on the team, there’s not one guy who doesn’t like Cro’, that’s for sure. And he’s one of the most fit guys on the team. He’s dedicated. He doesn’t get in trouble off the ice, he’s a good student. The list goes on.
“As soon as I met him, I could tell he had excellent leadership qualities,” Hollman added.
Goaltending
This past weekend in its two-game home series against Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, ASU hockey started sophomore goaltender Ryland Pashovitz on Friday, and senior Robert Levin on Saturday. It was just the second start of the year for ‘Pash,’ as Levin and freshman Joey Daccord had been getting the bulk of the time in net.
Powers said he wasn’t totally sure who would be starting the two games against Colgate in Tempe this weekend.
“I don’t know. It’s all going to come down to who looks good in practice,” Powers said. “I think you can absolutely expect to see Pash in net. Beyond that, it’s going to be hard. If Pash plays like he did last weekend, we’ll have to go back-to-back with him for the first time all year.”
Colgate
Speaking of Colgate, ASU hockey will play the Raiders in Tempe on Friday and Saturday, both games at 7:05 p.m.
We return to the ice this Friday & Saturday at @OceansideIce to take on Colgate!
— Sun Devil Hockey (@SunDevilHockey) November 28, 2016
Limited tickets remaining: https://t.co/eOeooZeNJj pic.twitter.com/8Yters7Dxn
“(They’re) hard-working, really consistent, they’re probably not going to give up anything major,” Powers said. “They’re not going to make a lot of mistakes. They’re just going to be disciplined and patient, kind of like RPI was on Saturday night against us.”
Team Health
Brett Gruber left the game with an apparent leg injury on Friday against RPI but was back in the lineup on Saturday. Powers said the freshman forward was “fine” and “just a little bruised up.”
As for the rest of the team?
“Good, everything’s good. We’re pretty healthy. We’re really healthy at this stage of the season. We have a couple guys that are probably out, but we’re looking good.”
Reach the reporter at matthew.layman@asu.edu or follow @Mattjlayman on Twitter.
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