The No. 20 Arizona State Sun Devils (7-4-1) don’t face-off against the No. 4 Denver Pioneers (9-3-2) until Friday night. However, that hasn’t stopped the teams from getting into it on social media prior to the action this weekend.

As far as I’m aware, this is the extent of the back-and-forth that has occurred thus far, but that doesn’t mean there won’t be more in the 24 hours or so until puck drop. However, just because the teams’ social media accounts have dropped their proverbial gloves doesn’t mean any players or coaches have followed suit, at least not from ASU’s side.

In fact, Sun Devils head coach Greg Powers has made it very clear that it will take his team’s best effort of the season to pull off any wins against such a powerhouse program, which makes sense given that Denver is the highest-ranked opponent ASU will have faced so far this season.

“We can’t give them transition by mismanaging the puck at the blue lines or in the neutral zone like we did against Vermont (last weekend),” Powers said. “We think if we manage the puck the best we have all year, we’re going to have a good chance to win this weekend. But if we mismanage the puck, those mistakes against a team like Denver, with the talent and skill that they have, it’ll end up in the back of our net.”

Last weekend, the Sun Devils were coming off a nearly three-week rest period before they hosted the Vermont Catamounts (1-9-2), a team that Powers and multiple players insisted is much better than their record.

This was evident in the game results, as the Sun Devils came away with a 2-1 victory in the Friday night matchup—thanks to a pair of second period goals from junior forward James Sanchez—and then tied them 2-2 Saturday night, after blowing a mid-second period lead of 2-0 by allowing two power-play goals by the end of the frame.

“I think it’s kind of lame to tie a game,” Sanchez commented. “I think there should be a winner and a loser, but that’s just the way it is. Going into this weekend, I think we definitely need to ramp it up a little more.”

The Sun Devils certainly hope those games against UVM can serve as a type of “welcome-back” series, as it was the first of 13 consecutive game weekends without a bye, which will run through the end of the regular season.

“We got a pretty tough schedule ahead of us,” senior forward and captain Tyler Busch said. “It’s a good challenge for us. I think that if you want to be a good, contending program you got to play all the best teams, and we got a lot of high-ranked teams coming in.

“I think it’s important for us to just keep looking at it one game at a time, and we’ve been doing that all year and it’s been working pretty well. So, just focus on Friday night and move on from there.”

While ASU is certainly one of, if not the newest member of the upper echelon of college hockey programs, Denver is one of the most established members of this group, as they so humbly reminded everyone on Twitter as seen above.

The Pioneers are eight-time national champions, last winning in 2017, which is tied for second all-time with North Dakota. Only Michigan has more, with nine.

“They’re a blueblood in every way,” Power said regarding Denver. “Really good team, so it’s exciting to be able to host such a great program, and I think it’s exciting for our fans here locally to be able to go watch us play such a good program, and hopefully people come out in abundance and enjoy it.

“They’re deep and balanced, and we think we are too. So, it’s going to be a great challenge and we’re excited to take it on.”

Denver will have something to prove over this weekend’s games in The Valley of the Sun though. Prior to winning their most recent game last Saturday, a 6-1 victory over No. 17 Western Michigan, the Pioneers did not win any of their previous five contests (three losses, two ties) after starting the season on an eight-game win streak.

Granted, the level of competition was stiff during that skid, which started against the two-time defending national champions in No. 14 Minnesota-Duluth, which was followed by two games with No. 3 North Dakota before the Western Michigan series.

Still, Denver will need its “A-game” to beat an ASU team that is flying high, as the Sun Devils have won six of their last eight games, which includes last Saturday’s tie and a 4-3 loss at Alaska-Fairbanks one month ago.

Two of those six wins particularly stand out, when the Sun Devils defeated then No. 9 Quinnipiac 5-3 and then again 4-1 in the first two days of November. This weekend’s games will serve as a chance for ASU to prove that weekend wasn’t a fluke, especially considering that QU has since dropped out of the Top 20.

“We could go against anybody, honestly,” Sanchez stated. “If we can grab a couple wins this weekend it will set us apart and show everybody that ASU’s not messing around like this is a real program and everyone’s going to want to be a part of this.”

As enthusiastic as Sanchez is about the team’s chances this weekend, he is well aware of the areas that need improvement if the Sun Devils intend to pull off this program-defining sweep, echoing some of Powers’s earlier sentiments.

“We had a meeting today, we talked about just watching turnovers because Denver’s good at capitalizing on chances that they get, that’s why they’re such a good team,” Sanchez said. “So, we kind of just buckle down turnovers and make sure we get pucks in, and honestly just go from there. Obviously, I think our faceoffs got better last weekend, so we got to keep the ball rolling with those.”

Some key players for Denver include junior defenseman Ian Mitchell (three goals, nine assists) and sophomore forward Emilio Pettersen (two goals, 10 assists—team-high), who are both tied for the team lead with 12 points, plus freshman forward Bobby Brink, who has 11 points on five assists and a team-high six goals, four of which have come on power plays. Also watch out for junior defenseman Griffin Mendel, who is tied for third on Denver with a +6 rating and leads the team with 18 shot blocks.

For ASU, Sanchez has become a valuable distributor and ranks third in the NCAA in assists per game with 1.08 (13 total in 12 games), plus 10th in the NCAA with points (goals + assists) per game at 1.42. Sanchez’s 17 total points lead the team, and his +8 rating is tied with junior forward Johnny Walker for the team lead.

Walker leads the team with six goals, and his 13 points are tied for second on the team with sophomore defenseman Josh Maniscalco (five goals, eight assists). Senior defenseman Brinson Pasichnuk leads the team with nine assists and is fourth on the team with 11 total points. Goaltender Evan DeBrouwer has also developed into a quality player, as his .921 save percentage ranks 20th in the NCAA.

The Sun Devils open their series with the Pioneers at 7:05 p.m. Friday night at Oceanside Ice Arena, then will play them at 4:30 p.m. on Saturday at Gila River Arena in Glendale, Arizona, home of the NHL’s Coyotes.