Tempe — In hockey, there’s a huge difference between believing and knowing.
At the start of the home hockey schedule, I believed Arizona State had something special brewing in Tempe for its fourth NCAA season. There was a certain look in the eyes of the young squad that oozed confidence. I have been around hundreds of hockey teams over the past four decades, and that look is unmistakable — and almost impossible to fake.
Even after then-No. 1 Ohio State swept ASU at home, in October, there was a feeling, more than a hint, that this group could become a contender. They truly believed they should have won those games.
Now, after concluding their 2018-19 schedule with 12 consecutive home victories, and after piling up more than 20 wins for the first time in program history, I no longer need to simply believe.
I now know: ASU hockey, currently ranked No. 8 in the PairWise and NCAA RPI rankings, 11th in the USA Today poll, and 12th in the USCHO poll, is a legitimate national contender.
And everyone else in college hockey knows it, too.
This the Sun Devils won more games during the regular season (21) than in their first three NCAA seasons combined. Greg Powers, a former ACHA All-American goalie for ASU and head honcho behind the bench of the ACHA and then NCAA squads for more than the past decade, sure looks like a Coach of the Year winner to me.
Of course, the nation’s leading goal scorer, the flashy Johnny Walker, could make any coach look good. Add in the rock-solid Joey Daccord in the nets, and you understand why the win total is anything but smoke and mirrors.
Daccord has stacked up seven shutouts, while starting every game against what many believe to be the toughest NCAA hockey schedule in the nation. Daccord’s confidence envelops the squad in front of him. You can feel it — this ASU squad believes it can win any game with Daccord in the nets — because he has done it this season, night after night. It is rare at any level of hockey when one goalie starts every game, too. Daccord is the rock of the hockey program in Tempe.
The Sun Devils also own a top-10 penalty kill unit, and this season earned their first-ever home series sweeps and road series sweeps. They notched their first-ever win over a top-10 team, 4-3 over then-No. 6 Penn State (on the road), and added a 3-3 road tie with then-No. 3 Minnesota State.
So what does all this achievement add up to at the end of the season? After all, ASU is the lone independent NCAA Division I hockey team, and they have neither a regular season league crown to win, nor a conference tournament to win — and either could have secured an automatic bid to the upcoming NCAA 16-team national tournament.
The Sun Devils must pray for an at-large bid, and hope their stellar ranking and tough-as-nails schedule will secure one of the few open slots announced March 24.
But I don’t think they need much prayer. ASU should be a lock for an at-large national tourney bid, even when factoring in the usual east-coast hockey bias. ASU is such a dangerous team because of that “no one believes in us” chip it keeps up on their collective shoulders. Ohio State would not want to give them another bite at the apple in an upcoming NCAA regional.
Even with all this positivity, the hockey program still has room for growth. Powers acknowledged — again — after last month’s home sweep of American International that ASU’s home ice, the decrepit Oceanside rink in Tempe, is not a worthy Division I facility. They will spend at least another couple seasons in that tiny icebox before their new on-campus building is ready. The crummy current building is old news, though, and the team long ago embraced it as a badge of honor. “Laugh all you want,” they seem to say, “but you’ll still leave here with a big L in the record book.”
The Sun Devil hockey brand seems a strangely well-kept secret throughout the Phoenix metro area. I suspect that with continued success, and the resulting expanded national attention, that these details will improve.
The ASU product on the ice is already prepared for prime time, and the Sun Devils’ first NCAA national tournament appearance should be the glorious spotlight the team has earned. Now we will just have to wait for that TV reaction shot of the Sun Devils players when the NCAA announces the tournament bids in a couple weeks.
Then we all will know and believe it.
