Before every game, Jordan Young, a senior defenseman on the Arizona State hockey team, stands at the entrance of the dressing room like a bouncer — but instead of throwing people out, he draws each of his teammates into his embrace. It is a warm display from a squad that shows few outward signs of softness, as symbolized by the hard hat awarded to the most valuable player after each victory.
A hockey uprising of geography against tradition is gathering force as Arizona State settles into its first year of Division I competition after abundant success at the club level. Like an infant, the hockey team is going through developmental stages that cannot be skipped.
As the only Pac-12 university with a Division I hockey team, Arizona State has to fly before it can skate, so the Sun Devils logged about 9,500 air miles over 10 days in October for games in Alaska and Connecticut, with a stopover in Arizona long enough for the players to attend two days of classes.
“We don’t really garner a whole lot of respect right now,” said Liam Norris, a fifth-year forward and the team’s captain. “We’re doing our best to get some. Realistically, no team should give us any respect at this point until we prove ourselves.”
Realistically, Norris’ office these days should be at the Canadian Natural Resources headquarters in Calgary, not between the face-off circles on sheets of ice across North America. Norris earned his undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering in May and accepted a job as a production engineer.
When he was granted a fifth year of eligibility by the NCAA, Norris could not pass up the opportunity to take what amounted to a gap year and spend it in the slot. A first-team all-American selection in the American Collegiate Hockey Association, Norris had been the Sun Devils’ greatest natural resource in club competition. Why would he not want to stick around for the Division I payoff?
“There’s a huge downturn in the oil industry right now,” Norris said, “so I honestly don’t think the company was very upset about not having to pay me for a year.”
Norris’ worth as a leader to a Sun Devils team with 15 freshmen is incalculable. Coach Greg Powers described Norris as a player who made everyone around him better. Norris said the biggest challenge was getting all the players to believe that the team belonged on the big stage.
“You go into some of these schools that have the big reputation and stuff, and you come in sometimes a little hesitant,” said Norris, one of eight Canadians on the roster. “We are the new guys, and maybe we give them almost too much respect. You’re almost sitting back and watching.”
After opening their Division I schedule in Anchorage with a 3-2 overtime loss to Alaska Anchorage and a 2-1 win over Alaska Fairbanks, the Sun Devils traveled to Connecticut to play Quinnipiac, a nationally ranked program that is coming off its third consecutive NCAA tournament appearance. Against the Bobcats, the 2013 NCAA runner-up, Arizona State was outshot 57-14 in a 5-0 loss.
The afternoon of the game, Quinnipiac coach Rand Pecknold had lunch with Powers at Eli’s on Whitney Avenue.
“I know,” Pecknold said with a laugh. “It’s a little different.”
Pecknold extended the lunch invitation and reached out to Powers to schedule the game as soon as Arizona State’s move to Division I became official last year.
“I’ve been in his shoes,” Pecknold said. “It’s a tough climb.”
Powers was a senior goalie for the Sun Devils’ club team in 1998-99, when Pecknold shepherded the Quinnipiac program from Division II to Division I. The Bobcats were one of eight teams in the new Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference, and Pecknold said his players did not have a nonconference game that first season because he could not find any other willing opponents.
“I wish college hockey had been a little more welcoming then,” said Pecknold, who hastened to add: “I don’t think it was malicious. It’s just that it was very different with eight of us. It wasn’t one new team; it was a new league. The established leagues didn’t know how to deal with that. Nobody would play us.”
With 10 months to build a schedule, Powers at one point thought his team, which is competing as an independent, would be lucky to have 10 Division I games. The Sun Devils ended up with 25 on a 38-game schedule that also includes club, Division II and Division III teams.
“The college hockey community was so open to Arizona State, so happy and excited,” Powers said. “People were saying, ‘How can we help?’ and the general answer was, ‘You can play us.’”
The support reflects the program’s regional importance to the sport. Arizona State and Alabama-Huntsville are the only Division I men’s hockey teams in the southern United States, and Arizona State is one of just three programs west of Denver.
“People want to see college hockey grow,” Powers said. “We’re the 60th team. There needs to be more. The expansion has to go west. It’s on us to make sure we do this right and we have success.”
Quinnipiac was the first of three opponents in an East Coast swing for the Sun Devils, who endured a 5-1 loss to Connecticut and fell to Sacred Heart by 3-0. In the three games, the Sun Devils were 0 for 11 on the power play.
“That’s just a young team that’s never played together,” Powers said.
Or maybe Arizona State just needed to get off the road. The Sun Devils will play only five NCAA games at Oceanside Ice Arena, their 41-year-old home rink, which seats about 800. (They will host a four-team tournament in January at Gila River Arena in Glendale, home of the NHL’s Arizona Coyotes, and expect to play more games there in coming seasons until they can get their own on-campus arena.)
In two home games against Division II Southern New Hampshire last week, Arizona State converted 8 of 11 power-play chances and won by a combined score of 16-3.
Defenseman Brock Krygier began his career at Michigan State. But after completing his undergraduate degree in human biology in three years, he decided to pursue a master’s and finish his career on a team that was new to the big stage.
He is one of several Sun Devils who played Division I hockey elsewhere before coming to Tempe.
“I knew this wasn’t going to be a walk in the park or all sunshine and roses,” Krygier said, adding: “I’m fine with that. I’m fine with working hard and going through the ups and downs of a season and really establishing a foundation for years to come.”
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