No. 12 Arizona State hockey got a huge win over No. 3 Western Michigan on Friday night, downing the Broncos 5-3 at Mullett Arena. The Sun Devils were unable to follow up on Saturday, falling 4-3 in overtime.
Despite the weekend split, the team earned four out of a possible six points in the NCHC standings. There's still a chance (albeit slim) that the Devils could win their last two regular season games and win the conference regular season title - although that would require leaders Western Michigan losing out.
ASU, now second place with 44 points, must head to Nebraska next week and face Omaha (3rd in the NCHC) to close out its regular season schedule. The Devils have split the season series to date (1-1) after meeting in Tempe in November. If ASU were to lose both upcoming games, the two programs would be tied in points but Omaha would win the tiebreaker based on a higher number of regulation conference wins.
Arizona State left with just one option to see NCAA postseason
Despite recording a strong regular season, ASU's overtime loss on Saturday is sure to sink the program in the all-important Pairwise rankings. That list determines which squads mathematically will qualify for the 16-team NCAA Tournament field.
The team entered the night ranked No. 16, which already would project them outside the field due to the likelihood at least one conference tournament won't be won by the top seed. An at-large bid seems out of the question so that leaves ASU with just one option - win the NCHC tournament.
That's slightly easier said than done considering if ASU were to clinch the No. 2 seed, it would face Minnesota Duluth in the first round. The Devils went 3-2-0 against the Bulldogs this season but needed a shootout in the most recent matchup (Feb. 15) to take all the points.
ASU is certainly capable of winning the NCHC. Friday and Saturday's games proved that. Now comes the critical home stretch where the team will have to lock in and finish strong in order to get hot at the right time for a postseason run.