Arizona State bounced back after an overtime loss to No. 16 North Dakota by sweeping No. 17 St. Cloud State on the road, ASU’s second road sweep of the season. The power play units starred in the weekend series, totaling five goals during the man advantage, with three of them coming on one power play. With the team getting healthier by the weekend, head coach Greg Powers can mix and match the units as he pleases.

“Any road sweep is a great sweep,” Powers said. “It’s nice to see our special teams start to win us games and put us in positions to win two weekends in a row. I think we put an old veteran unit as well as a younger unit together, and they each got a goal for us. Chemistry and confidence are helping us embrace the opportunity to win games.”

Junior goaltender Gibson Homer started both games for the Sun Devils, allowing three goals both nights. While St. Cloud State spent ample time on the power play and also pulled its goalie for several minutes at the end of each game for an extra attacker, Homer stood tall.

Powers said he’d likely split the coming weekend against No. 19 Colorado College between Homer and senior goalie Luke Pavicich. He explained the decision to start Homer in both games and the challenges of playing in the crease at the Herb Brooks Center in St. Cloud, Minnesota.

“He’s hot right now, and it was a gut feeling,” Powers mentioned. “I probably went up there with the intention to split because that’s been working for us. It’s hard to play goaltender on big ice because angles are different. Laterally, it’s so much different than playing on a regulation sheet, so I figured we should just stick with Gibby, come back here, and reset.”

The Tigers took care of business at home earlier in the year against Arizona State, winning both games 4-3 in overtime and 3-1. However, ASU was still missing nearly half of its top players. Junior forward Bennet Schimek only played in one game, while Cruz Lucius and graduate forward Lukas Sillinger didn’t even play.

With the Sun Devils getting their legs underneath them and sending out four talented lines, the rematch in Tempe will see both teams in different situations. The Tigers have lost five of their last six games, and ASU has won 10 of its last 11.

“They swept us up there, so we know how good they are,” Powers recalled. “Clearly, the difference for us is health, but they didn’t have their best player either. They’re going to be more loaded up than when we played them, but we were missing a lot of guys. We’re a much different team now, but they’re going to come in here hungry.”

Throughout the season, sophomore forward Kyle Smolen has continuously climbed the ranks on the team, succeeding in each line Powers has put him on. Smolen is fifth on the team with 19 points, and his ability to play in nearly any situation has helped increase his ice time. From going on the penalty kill to being the focal point of a power play, Powers knows he can count on him to be a team player.

“He’s the ultimate Swiss army knife,” Powers added. “You can play him down the middle or on the wing, he kills penalties and he’s good in the power play, he does everything. He’s a coach's dream in every way. He’s a guy I trust in every situation, and he makes everyone around him better. He’ll do anything you ask of him and be an ultimate team-first guy, and I think that’s why he’s had so much success.”

For Smolen, the jump from his freshman year to now was massive. Learning the ropes as a first-year player under the veteran leadership last year helped him realize what he can do to help the team, and he’s been unstoppable since. It not only earns him more ice time, but it also shows scouts at the next level that he has what it takes to continue his high-performance play after college.

“The best attribute you can have as an athlete is being versatile,” Smolen observed. “If you can play anywhere and do anything that’s asked of you, I think that’s the best characteristic of a player. Coaches look for players that can do multiple things really well at a high level, and that gives you the best chance to make it somewhere.”

The Sun Devils are 1-3-1 in overtime this year and have been weaker in late-game situations where the opponent puts an extra attacker on the ice in the dying minutes of the game. Last year, ASU stood strong in 5-on-6 and would hold on to win more often than not, but that hasn’t been the case recently. St. Cloud State was a breath of fresh air with the Sun Devils icing the game with empty net goals both times last weekend, but they still gave up a goal on Saturday to cut their lead to one before the empty netter.

“I think we’re at a turning point where we need to decide how bad we want to win,” Smolen admitted. “There’s going to be times when we’re in playoff games that we have to win with a minute left where we just have to end games ourselves. I think we have that mentality; it’s just a matter of executing. I think we have a group of guys that want to win; it’s just a matter of going out and doing it.”

In their first year as a member of the NCHC conference, the Sun Devils have taken the league by storm, claiming the top spot with an 8-4 record and 25 points. A combination of talent and buy-in from the team has resulted in a win on the board, and it all starts with the returners. Smolen is among the several players who have taken the initiative and pulled the team together as the season continues, and Powers has helped bring out the best in the team as a whole.

“99% of my focus is culture-based and bringing guys up to speed on what the expectations and standards of the program are,” Powers explained. “It speaks volumes to the veterans that return. I thought last year’s team instilled what our core values are, and held each other to that standard every day. Our returners did an unbelievable job transitioning into leaders and making sure all the new guys understood what it was going to take.”

Graduate forward Benji Eckerle has been with the program for five years, going from being a part of the 2020 team that made the NCAA tournament as an independent to seeing the Sun Devils compete for a top spot and a home playoff game. Eckerle is one of the few players who has stuck with Powers and the program through thick and thin, and now he’s reaping its benefits.

“It’s a dream come true,” Eckerle expressed. “That was the ultimate goal when I committed here and first came in, and now, in my last season, it’s like we’ve made it there. We had some tougher seasons, but we knew they were coming, and we just had to be patient. It’s been a real full-circle moment here, and it feels great to be a part of.”

The talent level of ASU this year is incomparable to that of past teams, but the inaugural year of NCHC play has helped the players rise to the occasion. Instead of having a handful of games circled on its schedule, Arizona State has a tough matchup with playoff implications every weekend.

“What’s really helped elevate our game is playing a tough schedule,” Eckerle voiced. “We have to rise to the occasion every week, so there’s no chance to have off weekends or anything like that. The challenge of playing really good teams is just bringing out the best of us week in and week out.”

One of the new transfers that has raised the play of the Sun Devils is graduate forward Artem Schlaine. The Russian finished last weekend with four points, including the empty net goal on Saturday that emphatically iced the road sweep. Team chemistry can easily rise when the words spoken in the locker room are reflected on the ice, and that’s exactly what has happened.

“When you win, your team gets closer,” Shlaine remarked. “You get to enjoy yourselves more, and you get more days off, so you get to hang out more, and that drives guys together. The relationships outside of hockey are important, too, and you get closer as the year goes on. We’re deep into conference play, sitting at number one, and at the end of games, the closer your team is, the better off you’ll be.”

Powers has been behind the bench for 10 years at ASU, going from playing in Oceanside Arena, where ceiling tiles fell on the ice in the middle of games, to holding the top spot in the best hockey conference. While it’s easy to get motivated by wanting to prove the haters wrong, Powers gets even more juice from program supporters, whom he hopes to provide a banner for soon.

“We’ve been a program people have counted out since day one,” Powers stated. “Most people in college hockey probably didn’t think 10 years later I’d still be standing here, so we don’t really give a sh*t what other people think. We care about what’s going on in our room, and our inner belief is all that matters. Hopefully, when we’re in the Frozen Four sometime soon, it’s going to be proving all the people right that believed we could build an elite program at Arizona State.”

Join your fellow Sun Devil fans on our premium message board, the Devils’ Huddle, run by the longest-tenured Sun Devil sports beat writer, to discuss this article and other ASU football, basketball, and recruiting topics. Not a member yet? Sign up today and get your daily fix of Sun Devil news!