Forward Jared Morris fights for control of the puck against West Chester University, Saturday, Sept. 27, 2014 at Oceanside Ice Arena in Tempe. ASU beat West Chester 9-0. (Photo by Ben Moffat)After ASU hockey won its first ACHA national championship in 2013-14, ASU coach Greg Powers elected to wait until playing rivals UA to raise the championship banner for a simple reason.
"Why not?" he said.
It's no secret that the ASU-UA rivalry is one of the biggest rivalries in collegiate sports, and hockey is no exception. Ever since his playing days, Powers has had a distaste for the Wildcats.
"I've made no secret since I was a player that I have a severe dislike for UA," he said. "I like nothing about UA. That certainly doesn't mean I don't respect their players and coaches because I do, but we don't like UA, and ASU teams under my watch will always go into the series versus UA with that core belief."
Powers boasts a 39-1 record all-time against the Wildcats. He has made an emphasis of treating the game unlike any other, which adds pressure and hype to the series.
"Our approach to UA is anything but cliche," he said. "We always treat the UA games like they are a completely separate season. The UA games are everything to us and our only higher goal than consistently beating UA is winning another national championship."
As part of the banner ceremony, several ASU alumni (including all of last year's seniors outside of captain Colin Hekle) will be returning for this weekend's contests. With so many players from last year's championship team returning, Powers had a chance to reflect on the magical title run.
"There will never be a team like we had last year," he said. "With that said, we continue to improve every day and will look to continue that trend heading all the way into March where we'll hopefully be peaking playing our best hockey. This year's team is much different than last years in many ways, but our expectations are exactly the same."
The Sun Devils return home for the much-hyped series ready to go and are playing some of their best hockey, coming off of a two-game sweep of No. 6 Minot State. The offense was explosive in spurts, which Powers attributed to the overall talent level on that side of the ice.
"We are very talented, deep and explosive," he said. "(Scoring goals in bunches) is usually just how it works in hockey. When things really go well for us and we play down hill we can really put pucks in the net."
One of the key stars on the offensive end has been sophomore forward Tommy Cooney, who leads the team with 11 points (five goals, six assists).
Though Cooney also leads the team with 14 penalty minutes, Powers said he is not concerned about the discipline of his young star.
"Tommy (Cooney) is playing great," he said. "I still think he will continue to improve, which is scary. His (penalty minutes) don't bother me at all, 10 of his 14 minutes were a 10-minute misconduct on a very questionable call up in Minot."
ASU is improving on the defensive end as well. After surrendering six goals in the team's first two games, the Sun Devils have given up only three goals total since.
Powers has put an extra emphasis on that end this season, and it is something the Sun Devils look to continue to work on.
"(The secret has been) just more attention to detail on the defensive side of the puck," Powers said. "That comes with more game experience and just the guys getting our systems down correctly by committing to attention to detail."
UA is coming into this weekend's series after their own impressive stretch of games, including a 6-5 shootout win over No. 8 Liberty on Saturday.
"That was a great win for (UA), and it shows they have some great character, so we'll have to be that much more ready for when they come in this weekend," said Powers. "They have a very good team and well coached team, and we'll be prepared for them."
Injury report:
- Sophomore forward Zack Holstrom has left the Sun Devil hockey program due to personal reasons, Powers said. Holstrom had 14 points (six goals, eight assists) in 17 games last year and did not register a point in two games in 2014.
- Sophomore forward Ryan Ostertag is out for this weekend's games due to an undisclosed injury, Powers said. Ostertag has not played since scoring seven points (four goals, three assists) in ASU's opening weekend sweep of No. 20 Niagara.
Reach the reporter at fardaya@asu.edu or follow him on Twitter @fardaya15
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