When the Sun Devils reached the midpoint of their season last weekend in New Hampshire, a casual glance showed a 9-10 team that was 2-8 on the road (1-0 in neutral-site games) and now sits No. 27 in the PairWise Rankings. The NCAA Tournament field of 16 felt far away. A closer inspection reveals just how close ASU is to postseason contention, however. Of the Devils’ eight road losses, three have come in overtime (Minnesota-Duluth, Bemidji State, New Hampshire) and two more came in the final two minutes of regulation, one with 16.7 remaining in regulation at Clarkson, the other with 1:58 remaining at Denver. There has also been controversy. The Sun Devils had a goal disallowed late in regulation…

The players’ reactions from the first four NHL games at Mullett Arena sounded like testimonials for the work of the league’s and venue’s ice crews. Winnipeg Jets center Pierre-Luc Dubois told ESPN’s Leah Hextall that Mullett Arena’s ice just might be the best in the NHL, and teammate Cole Perfetti said “the ice was great; it was unbelievable.” Florida Panthers forward Matthew Tkachuk loved all the elements of the playing surface. New York Rangers forwards Alexis Lafrenière and Ryan Reaves (now with the Wild) echoed those sentiments, with Reaves calling the playing surface “unreal.” When the Coyotes practiced there for the first time on Oct. 27, forward Christian Fischer raved about the speed of the ice and the boards. Then…

Rick Zombo and his Lindenwood University hockey staff have been leaning on Greg Powers for advice over the past couple of seasons. The Lions, who joined the NCAA Division I ranks this season, are walking the same path that the Sun Devils walked eight seasons ago when ASU made the leap from club team to Division I. Zombo has something...

The design of the play was simple. The reward for proper execution was massive. About halfway through 3-on-3 overtime against the No. 2 Minnesota Golden Gophers on Saturday at Mullett Arena, ASU coach Greg Powers called a timeout. He wanted Josh Doan to take the faceoff, but he wanted his sophomore captain to do more than just win that draw. “Center wins it forward and when he does, the winger goes,” Powers explained. “Center sends it, breakaway.” Doan won the draw to the weak side and Robert Mastrosimone went, getting in alone to score the game-winner and give ASU a 6-5 win that it needed in the worst way. https://twitter.com/shawn_depaz/status/1596728499553075201 “Another benchmark win for us,” said Powers, who apologized for…

Denise Semptimphelter always marveled at her son’s equal commitment to academics and hockey. TJ knew the rules. He had to finish his homework before he could go to practice, but hockey was such an important and time-consuming part of his life that there was little time left for anything else. “I don’t know if that routine made him become a really high achiever, but he always wanted straight As and that wasn’t something that we put on him,” said Denise, a third-grade school teacher. “He put that on himself because he always wanted to be the best, whether it was the best goalie, the best mathematician or the best writer. But that meant that he missed a lot of things…

Delgado, Douglas and Van Deursen have been the core of the Sun Devil Soccer side for years, but can they make one last run?

When North Dakota men’s hockey coach Brad Berry called Sun devils men’s hockey coach Greg Powers a couple of years ago, the hope was to stage the US Hockey Hall of Fame Game between the two teams in territory ripe for college expansion. “I think originally the idea was to have this in Seattle, kind of Pac-12 territory with the Kraken coming into the [NHL],” Powers said. While a game at Climate Pledge Arena could still happen at some point in the future as ASU and the college hockey world dream of a western-based NCAA conference, the chosen option works just as well. The Sun Devils will face off against No. 6 North Dakota at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas…

The Coyotes stepped on the ice for practice on Thursday at Mullett Arena, marking the first time that the team had fully experienced Arizona State’s brand-new venue since it was completed less than a month ago. There will be fresh criticism of the building’s crowd capacity by various media outlets and hockey fans this week. There will be hiccups as the team, the league and the NHLPA try to iron out some issues including the set-up for the temporary visiting dressing rooms, which drew a lot of attention on Wednesday. There will be financial challenges aplenty for the Coyotes as they await a vote from the Tempe City Council on their proposed arena and entertainment district just down the Salt…

Sun Devils men’s hockey coach Greg Powers nearly got the complete effort that he was looking for from his team. After a week’s worth of practice in which he cajoled his players to funnel bodies and pucks to the net in an effort to solve their scoring woes, ASU broke out with a season-high five goals in a 5-3 win against Colorado College at Mullett Arena on Friday. The power play clicked for a goal on four chances, even if it was from the second unit and player of the game Demetrios Koumontzis. The Devils won a majority of their faceoffs, TJ Semptimphelter (29 saves) was superb in goal again, and ASU even got a goal from its defense when…