Thursday, January 23, 2025

Men’s Notes: NCHC Newcomer ASU Defying Expectations

Scorching-Hot Sun Devils Alone atop League Standings


Men’s Notes: NCHC Newcomer ASU Defying Expectations
ASU’s Lukas Sillinger leads all active NCAA players with 142 career points (Photo: ASU Athletics).

As Arizona State prepared for its first season of conference affiliation as a Division I program, folks who regularly cover the NCHC were not particularly optimistic as to how the league’s newest member would fare in 2024-25.

When the NCHC released its annual preseason media poll, the Sun Devils were picked to finish eighth in the nine-team conference.

It wasn’t necessarily an indictment of ASU’s talent. In fact, the Sun Devils had amassed oodles of it, including returning team scoring leader Lukas Sillinger (Gr., Regina, Saskatchewan), highly touted freshman Cullen Potter (Hortonville, Wis.), and impact transfers like F Cruz Lucius (Jr., Grant, Minn.), F Ryan Kirwan (Gr., DeWitt, N.Y.), and D Noah Beck (Gr., Richmond Hill, Ontario).

More likely, it reflected a lack of familiarity with a program that had spent its first nine Division I seasons as an independent. Yes, the Sun Devils had won 20-plus games in three of those seasons. Yes, they had reached the NCAA Tournament in 2018-19, acquitting themselves well in a 2-1 loss to Quinnipiac. But how would the program adjust to the week-to-week grind of one of the most competitive conferences in college hockey?

Entering the stretch run of the 2024-25 campaign, we appear to have the answer.

Following last weekend’s road sweep at St. Cloud State, the Sun Devils find themselves all alone in first place in the NCHC, that sweep at least temporarily separating ASU from what had been a three-way tie for the league lead.

Head coach Greg Powers (Arizona State ’99) has his Sun Devils on a blistering run, having suffered just one loss in their last 11 games. The lone loss? A 4-3 setback to North Dakota in which ASU held the lead with less than a minute left in regulation.

The dynamic Lucius is back from an injury that cost him the entire first half of the season. Transfers Beck, Kirwan and Bennett Schimek (Sr., Mendota Heights, Minn.) rank 1-2-3 on the squad in scoring. Sillinger has already eclipsed the 20-point mark for the fourth straight season. Potter is one of the top-scoring rookies in the NCHC. The scoring offense ranks fourth nationally. Junior G Gibson Homer (Grand Rapids, Mich.) has his save percentage hovering around the .930 mark for the second year in a row.

Those, and other, ingredients, have created a recipe that has ASU firmly within the hunt not only for a conference title, but for the second postseason appearance in program history.

That hunt continues this weekend at home against Colorado College. The Sun Devils hold a slim two-point lead on Western Michigan – which has two games in hand on ASU – entering the final six weeks of the regular season. Omaha and North Dakota are also still within reach. CC can re-insert itself into the race with a strong series. And, of course, defending NCAA champion Denver also lurks.

The road won’t be easy – it never is in the NCHC – but Arizona State has clearly shown it was ready for the ride all along.


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Must Read:

College Hockey News: Team of the Week: Western Michigan

FloHockey: Arizona State hockey proving they are for real in first NCHC season

NHL.com: Rookie Watch: Celebrini 1st in faceoff wins

Schenectady Daily Gazette: Union men’s hockey seniors want to win fourth straight Mayor’s Cup

USCHO: Northern Michigan collecting important wins as Wildcats ‘competing with every team’

USCHO: Well-conditioned Miami squad aiming for late-January push, looking to ‘build on the good’


Must Hear:

Bulldog Insider: Molenaar just what young Bulldogs needed

College Hockey Today: Heating up in the desert

Inside Atlantic Hockey: Featuring Army D Mac Gadowsky, associate head coach Zach McKelvie

Parting Schotts: Josh Hauge reviews Dartmouth/Harvard games, previews Mayor’s Cup game vs. RPI

The CCHA Show: Featuring Bowling Green head coach Dennis Williams

USCHO Weekend Review: Weekend results in the top 20


Must Watch:

9News Denver: DU’s Davis is a national champion goaltender – but being extraordinary is the family plan

ECAC Hockey Decision Makers: Featuring Yale head coach Keith Allain


Hobey Fan Voting:

College hockey fans can cast a vote in support of their favorite candidate for the 2025 Hobey Baker Memorial Award, given annually to the best player in NCAA Division I men’s hockey. Nominees were chosen by their respective coaches. Click HERE to vote.


Big Mac Attack:

Army West Point sophomore D Mac Gadowsky (Fairbanks, Alaska) has erupted for 12 points over his last four contests, extending his career-long point streak to six games in the process.

This past weekend, Gadowsky supplied two goals and three assists in Army’s sweep of Air Force. One week earlier, he erupted for a three-goal, four-assist weekend in a sweep of Mercyhurst.

Gadowsky, the AHA Defenseman of the Week each of the last two weeks, leads all NCAA defensemen with 10 goals and is tied for the national lead with 24 points. He also tops the nation’s rearguards in shooting percentage (19.6).


Passing the Hat:

Last week we examined the sudden nationwide increase in hat tricks since the calendar flipped to 2025.

That trend continued into the weekend with a season-high nine hat tricks, topping the previous high of eight from the previous week.

This past weekend’s scoring performances included a four-goal effort by UConn’s Joey Muldowney (So., Lake View, N.Y.) in Friday’s 4-2 win at Maine. Although he saw his career-best six-game point streak come to an end the following night, Muldowney has produced seven goals and 11 points over his last seven contests.


Power Surge:

Ohio State has scored at least one power-play goal in nine consecutive games, the longest active streak in the country:

Most Consecutive Games w/ PPG in 2024-25:
Games School Start Date End Date
11 Denver Oct. 19 Nov. 23
11 LIU Oct. 19 Dec. 7
9 Ohio State Nov. 30 Active
7 Quinnipiac Nov. 15 Dec. 7
7 UMass Lowell Oct. 12 Nov. 9

The Buckeyes are converting at 32.4 percent with the man advantage during this current stretch, after clicking at just 12.5 percent in their first 14 games.


Fit to Print:

“We’ve talked about our standards, our expectations, how we need to play, what we’re capable of. It’s almost like a pie in the sky, a little bit, until you get there. Tonight, we put it all together. I think the most important thing is we’ve got 33 guys in that room that now believe we can beat anyone that we play.”

— Stonehill head coach David Berard (Providence ’92) on Saturday’s 3-2 overtime win at No. 9 UMass Lowell on Saturday, the program’s first-ever victory over a nationally-ranked opponent (source: Stonehill Athletics Twitter).


Fries at the Bottom of the Bag:

Michigan Tech G Ryan Manzella (Fr., Eagan, Minn.) has recorded a shutout in each of his last two starts after blanking Minnesota State 1-0 on Saturday. Manzella, who joined the Huskies at the semester break, is 4-0-0 with a 1.60 goals against average and .939 save percentage through his first five NCAA outings … MTU will honor the late Tony Esposito with a Board of Trustees Silver Medal prior to Friday’s game. Esposito was a star goaltender for the Huskies from 1964-67 before embarking on a Hockey Hall of Fame career with the Chicago Blackhawks and Montreal Canadiens … St. Thomas F Cooper Gay (Jr., Edina, Minn.) registered an NCAA season-high 14 shots on goal in Friday’s 4-3 overtime win against Lake Superior State. Gay did not find the back of the net but did draw an assist on the game-tying goal late in the third period … Penn State sophomore F Aiden Fink (Calgary, Alberta) is the first Nittany Lion ever to amass 30-plus points in each of his first two seasons … Cornell senior G Ian Shane (Manhattan Beach, Calif.) played in his 100th career NCAA game in Saturday’s 2-2 tie at Quinnipiac, making him the sixth active goalie in Division I men’s hockey to reach that milestone … Army West Point head coach Brian Riley (Brown ’83) earned his 250th career win in Friday’s 3-2 victory over Air Force.


Longest Active NCAA Point Streaks:

  • 8 games, F Quinn Finley (Wisconsin)
    • 7-6—13, began Dec. 13 at Michigan
  • 8 games, F Gunnarwolfe Fontaine (Ohio State)
    • 7-5—12, began Dec. 5 vs. Penn State
  • 8 games, F Gavin Morrissey (Wisconsin)

    Longest Active Goal Streaks:

    • 5 games, F Ryan Greene (Boston University)
      • 6-4—10, began Dec. 29 at Yale
    • 4 games, D Mac Gadowsky (Army West Point)
      • 5-7—12, began Jan. 10 vs. Mercyhurst
    • 4 games, F Jack Ivey (Army West Point)
      • 4-2—6, began Jan. 10 vs. Mercyhurst
    • 4 games, F Liam Malmquist (St. Thomas)
      • 6-3—9, began Jan. 10 vs. Ferris State
    • 4 games, F Liam Valente (Western Michigan)
      • 5-1—6, began Jan. 3 vs. Alaska Anchorage

    Conference Websites
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    College Hockey Inc. Resources:


    Did you know? 93% of NCAA Division I men’s hockey players earn their degree!