Arizona State looking for bounce back weekend as St. Cloud State comes to town

Coming off of a disappointing weekend at Colorado College last weekend, Arizona State (13-14-1, 6-9-1 NCHC) returns to home ice and will welcome in the final NCHC team who has yet to play at Mullett Arena.

Battling to avoid being the last team without a chair for the NCHC tournament, the St. Cloud State Huskies (13-15-0, 6-12-0 NCHC) come in to this weekend on a 3-game losing streak, falling 6-0 at Denver on January 24th before getting swept at home by Miami last weekend.

Where Arizona State has been consistent in weekend splits, St. Cloud has been streaky in their play, highlighted by an early stretch where they won 4 of 5 games at the end of October immediately before a 4 game losing streak. 2026 was showing promise with a 5-2-0 record before this current losing streak.

The Huskies boast a strong tandem offensively in center Tyson Gross and forward Austin Burnevik, putting up 32 and 30 points respectively. Barrett Hall anchors the second line with 10 goals and 15 assists for 25 points, while defensemen Max Smolinski (5 G-12 A-17 P) and Finn Loftus (4 G-10 A-14 P) carry the torch for blue line scoring.

Strong disciplined defense is a hallmark of head coach Brett Larson, and this year's team is no different. Smokinski and Mason Reiners lead the team with 34 blocked shots apiece, followed closely by Cooper Wylie with 29 blocks. The zone strategy employed by the Huskies forces turnovers and keeps shooters to the perimeter, but one area of struggle is on the penalty kill. St. Cloud ranks 12th-worst in the nation with a 75.3% kill rate, an area where the Sun Devils' 8th ranked power paly (26.2%) needs to capitalize.

Yan Shostak and Patriks Berzins have split goaltending duties throughout the season, with the elder statesman in Berzins getting the slight edge in performance with a 7-6-0 record, 2.79 goals against average and .910 save percentage. Shostak has been getting prime net time as a freshman, backstopping the Huskies to their 4-2 upset win in Denver on January 23rd, and recording two shutouts on the season.

In addition to their weak penalty kill, St. Cloud has underperformed in the second half of each season dating back to 2022. On their current losing streak, the Huskies have been held to just two goals in those three games, highlighting the late season struggles. Furthermore, playing from behind has been a huge weak area for the Huskies. When their opponent scores first, St. Cloud is 2-13-0 on the season, and 1-13-0 when trailing after two periods. The test for the Sun Devils will be playing a complete game and holding off any potential third period charge.

For the Sun Devils, the roster took another hit with the departure of Johnny Waldron for the ECHL, but one bright spot of late has been the play of freshman Sam Alfano. Riding a 5-game point streak, he has tallied 3 goals and 4 assists since January 10th against Miami. He tied Colorado College's Mats Lindgren for most points in the NCHC among freshman in the month of January with 8, and is currently tied for 4th on the team in scoring with Kyle Smolen at 15 points. Bennett Schimek is on a 4-game point streak himself, his 38 points a new career high and tied for the team lead with Cruz Lucius.

As mentioned earlier, this will be the first time the Huskies play at Mullett Arena, but the Sun Devils and Huskies have faced off in Arizona once before, that coming in the third place game of the 2016 Desert Hockey Classic which St. Cloud won by a score of 4-2. The Sun Devils are 2-3-0 overall against the Huskies, dropping their first three head-to-head matchups before sweeping the series in Minnesota last season. This weekend could make or break the season for the Sun Devils as they trail the Huskies by a point for 6th place in the NCHC standings, but sit just a point ahead of Omaha in last place.

Tickets still remain for both Friday and Saturday night, Friday puck drop coming at 7pm and Saturday at 5pm. If you can't make it to the arena, Tyler Paley and Alex Coil will bring you the action all weekend long. Friday's game will be streaming only on NCHC.tv (subscription required), while Saturday will air in the Phoenix market on Fox 10 Xtra as well as NCHC.tv. You can also catch the game on the radio on Fox Sports 910 Phoenix, available on the iHeartRadio app.