Update: The new ACHA rankings released Tuesday flipped the rankings of ASU and Minot State. No. 2 ASU will now face No. 1 Minot State.
ASU coach Greg Powers is at the helm of the No. 2 team in the ACHA, but he won’t consider the top-tier program the best until the Sun Devils have what Thursday’s opponent has: a national championship.
“To be the best, you have to beat the best,” Powers said.
In a possible national title game preview, the No. 2 Sun Devils (16-0-0) host top-ranked Minot State (9-0-0 ACHA), and Powers knows how important this game is.
“It’s a huge game, there’s no understating how big,” he said.
Minot State opened the season at No. 1 in the ACHA rankings but dropped to No. 2 without losing a game. Meanwhile, ASU was elevated to No. 1 based on its strength of schedule. The rankings are based off a computer poll, not the coaches’ poll the ACHA had used in the past. Minot State reclaimed No. 1 with the release of the newest ACHA rankings on Tuesday.
Minot State coach Wade Regier said which school is No. 1 and which is No. 2 doesn’t matter to him, because Thursday will put an end to the discussion.
“It really is, in my opinion, almost a two-horse race,” Regier said. “The winner of this game would pretty much carry themselves ... to the national tournament.”
Powers agreed.
“The winner of the game will come away being a clear-cut No. 1,” Powers said.
Statistically, the two teams are the best in the nation as well. Minot State leads the ACHA with 6.3 goals per game and ASU is second with 6.2. ASU is tops in goals allowed per game at 1.1, with Minot State fifth at 1.8. The two hold a combined 25-0-0 record in the ACHA.
The game has a more personal feel for ASU senior forward Kale Dolinski, who played for Minot State in 2010-11. He won ACHA Division I Rookie of the Year with the Beavers, then transferred to ASU the following year.
The Sun Devils finished in the final four at last year’s national tournament, and Dolinski watched his old team win the title.
He said he has no animosity or hard feelings watching Minot State get crowned as champions.
“I thought about that after they won, and all I could have is the utmost respect for them. They deserved it,” Dolinski said. “It’d be nice to get the ‘W’ from them, but if you think they’re going to give it to us, then you got another thing coming.”
The Beavers won all three meetings last year, and are 5-1 in the last six matchups dating back to 2011. ASU last beat Minot State on Jan. 25, 2011, in a shootout victory in Tempe. Dolinski was a Beaver that season and has never beaten his old team.
Minot State lost its first game of the season to non-ACHA Williston State Saturday. It was the Beavers' first loss since Oct. 24, 2012, which marks a span of more than a year. Because Williston State is not in the ACHA, the loss does not count toward Minot State’s ranking or record.
ASU plays Williston State in Tempe on Friday and Saturday. Saturday’s game is ASU’s 19th game of the season, and if the Sun Devils win all three games this weekend, they tie a program record set last year for most consecutive ACHA wins to start the season.
But the focus is the Beavers on Thursday.
“They’re the defending national champs. They have what we want,” Powers said. “We’re out prove that we’re there and we’re capable of taking that over this year.”
Puck drops at 8:00 p.m. at Oceanside Ice Arena in Tempe.
Reach the reporter at justin.emerson@asu.edu or follow him on Twitter @J15Emerson
