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The Wait is Over: Mullett Mania Starts Friday vs. Colgate

by thesundevils.com
Oct 13, 2022

TEMPE, Ariz. – The Arizona State men's ice hockey team (1-3-0) officially enters a new era in Tempe with the inaugural game at the state-of-the-art Mullett Arena against Colgate (0-2-0) on Friday and Saturday, October 14-15. Puck drop for both games will be at 7:00 p.m. MST, and the debut at the Mullett is free to stream on Pac-12 Insider. 

"Everything continues to just be like the "pinch me" moment," said head coach Greg Powers. "Coming here this week, the most special moment so far was the guys got back from an uber-long 10 day trip, and seeing these guys and the kid's faces when we unloaded here, they saw really as a team for the first time. It was surreal, and that's what this is all about is these guys on the ice right here and it's just really exciting."

The Sun Devils return to Tempe for their home opener following a 10-day road trip to the land of 10,000 lakes to face then-No. 5 Minnesota Duluth and Bemidji State. Transfer sophomore goaltender TJ Semptimphelter recorded his first career NCAA shutout in the 3-0 win against Bemidji State, but the Sun Devils fell to a 1-3-0 season record on the trip. Semptimphelter's save percentage is second in the country among goaltenders who played four games thus far in 2022-23. 

"Three out of four games on the road we took points and that's going to help us in the Pairwise as we go," said head coach Greg Powers noting that forcing a top-five Minnesota Duluth into overtime will benefit the Sun Devils in the Pairwise rankings. "It doesn't reflect in the record but if you get to overtime on the road against good teams it really helps you in the Pairwise rankings, so it's a trip we can build off of," Powers continued.

Robert Mastrosimone, Lukas Sillinger, Josh Doan and Ethan Szmagaj tie for the team lead in points with three apiece. Mastrosimone tallied two goals at Bemidji State to join Matthew Kopperud who also boasts two. ASU is already back to its high-scoring offense and ranks 11th in the nation in goals so far this season with 10. The Sun Devils' save (.929) and power play (30.0) percentages are top-20 in the NCAA through four games. 

ASU faced Colgate six times in the program's history and most recently came off of an overtime 4-3 win against the Raiders last October. Colgate does have the advantage in the all-time matchup with a 3-2-1 record edge over the Sun Devils dating back to 2016. To start this season, the Colgate Raiders dropped both of their contests last weekend to Northern Michigan, and scored three goals to Northern Michigan's seven. Colgate was 8-9-3 on the road last season, and comes to Tempe as their first road trip of the year. 

In continuation of firsts, the Sun Devils debut brand new jerseys this opening weekend in honor of the Barry Bonds era of Sun Devil baseball. 
 

To commemorate Mullett Arena's opening weekend, with a ticket students can pick up a commemorative ticket on Friday, and a long sleeve shirt on Saturday courtesy of 942 Crew.

HISTORY vs. COLGATE (6 games):
December 2, 2016- W, 5-4
December 3, 2016- L, 2-3
October 27, 2017- L, 0-3
October 28, 2017- T, 1-1
October 22, 2021- L, 3-8
October 23, 2021- W, 4-3 (OT)

HEAD COACH GREG POWERS' QUOTES
On the excitement counting down the days to playing on the ice:
"Everything continues to just be like the "pinch me" moment. Coming here yesterday the most special moment so far was the guys got back from an uber-long 10 day trip, and seeing these guys and the kid's faces when we unloaded here, they saw really as a team for the first time. It was surreal, and that's what this is all about is these guys on the ice right here and it's just really exciting."

On his favorite spot in the arena:
"I mean obviously, where our team hangs out. The locker room, the lounge, the coaches offices. The resources that we now have access to, it's just going to take our program to a new level in every way. Every part of this building, there's no stone left unturned whether it's the club, whether it's the suites, the sight lines. There's not a bad seat in the house. The ice is a little bit of an upgrade from what we're used to. Seeing the guys skate out there was really cool today."

On getting to take the ice for the first time:
"We're spending the whole week here. We literally were here all day yesterday, and we're going to be here all day today and tomorrow's practice. We have our event tomorrow night at 6:00. We're going to do a 15 minute 3-on-3 game and a 10 man shootout to get some people in here and introduce them to our building and just be here as much as we can and live here so Friday feels like it's our home."

On getting to see it through from start to finish:
"It was always just the pipe dream for me, the guys I used to play with, the guys that played before me here dating back to 1979. We always would joke about something like this happening, and it's happening here. Everything is just, as we go day-to-day here continue to be that for a while. Being honest, if I wasn't a little bit awe struck by how nice this place is and how excited we are to build our program in this place. I was telling Paige earlier, God bless Oceanside. We'll miss it, but when you get in a place this nice that has the resources that we now have access to, it proves how well we did with what we had to work with. We're really proud of that. We had it way harder than we realized because we never had this before and literally, going from about as bad as it gets to as good as it gets. That's quite a climb."

On the "hockey in the desert" jabs:
"We hear it all the time. We were in Minnesota for 10 days and they like to jab hockey in the desert up there, but look at this place. Two sheets on campus. When I park in the garage in the morning overlooking Sun Devil Stadium and Desert Financial Arena and then I walk 50 feet to the right to our on campus arena… this is the spot that I used to tailgate for ASU football. It's incredible."

On keeping the rink clean:
"Yeah, our equipment staff have them dialed in down there. These guys respect what they have. They understand how lucky they are to be the first to play here, and we walk out of the locker room and the first thing they see is blue collar. And then there's a mural to the left and right of Oceanside, so it's to not forget where we came from. The standards and everything that we have built on as a program, blue collar, hard work, fighting through adversity, the obstacles. Just because we're in this Taj Mahal doesn't mean that it's changed. We just now are going to have access to resources, and quite frankly, to players that we never had access to."

On the message to the team after the road trip:
"We had a good trip. It doesn't get any tougher than going to Minnesota Duluth. Three of the last five years they've been in the frozen four. We felt like we were the better team the first game that we went into overtime in and probably could win that game. We had a goal called off with eight minutes left that would have put us up that we didn't like, but it is what it is. Going to Bemidji and getting a shutout win, and taking points in overtime. Three out of four games on the road we took points and that's going to help us in the Pairwise as we go. It doesn't reflect in the record but if you get to overtime on the road against good teams it really helps you in the Pairwise rankings, so it's a trip we can build off of. Now we have to take care of home ice. We created a really tough environment for teams to come in in Oceanside, I think this is going to be tougher. 24 out of our next 35 games are here, so we have to create a home ice advantage and really take advantage of that."

On advantages of sharing the rink with the Coyotes:
"They upgraded the facility in a lot of different ways. The annex, the two locker rooms that we'll have full time use of when they leave is going to be huge just for the facility whether it's the women's program, club team, whatever. Then the in arena upgrades that they made to put up to NHL standards. The ice, the technology on the bench, the ribbon boards are going to be extended in a couple of months so you won't see that yellow stuff. It'll be full ribbon boards. So, little things like that that the Coyotes chipped in and paid for to make this better, it's a huge plus."

 

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