Know Your Enemy: Arizona State

The new kids on the block are new no longer, and they more than paid their dues in their first season as a varsity program. College hockey's southwestern outpost is poised for another rough campaign or two, but there's no question that they've got the groundwork laid out very nicely for supporting a much brighter future in the Valley of the Sun.

Arizona State
Nickname: Sun Devils
Location: Tempe, AZ
Founded: 1885
Conference: Independent (Pac-12)
National Championships: 0
Last NCAA Appearance: None
Coach: Greg Powers (7th season)
2015-16 Record: 5-22-2
Series: RPI leads, 2-0-0
First game: December 11, 2015 (Troy, NY)
Last RPI win: December 12, 2015 (Troy, NY)
Last ASU win: Never

2016-17 games: November 25-26, 2016 (Tempe, AZ)

Key players: F Robbie Baillargeon, sr.; F Ryan Belonger, sr.; F Sean Murphy, sr.; F Wade Murphy, sr.; D Brock Krygier, sr.; G Robert Levin, sr.; D David Norris, sr.; F Dylan Hollman, jr.; D Ed McGovern, jr.; D Jake Montgomery, jr.; F Anthony Croston, so.; F Cody Gylling. so.; D Nicholas Gushue, so.; F Matt Kennedy, so.; F Joe Lappin, so.; F Jordan Masters, so.; G Ryland Pashovitz, so.; D Joey Raats, so.; F Ryan Stevens, so.; D Brinson Pasichnuk, fr.

Previous KYE installments:

• 2015-16

It was actually colder in Tempe than it was in Troy when the Sun Devils were in town, as bizarre as that seems, especially in December. That seems unlikely to happen again this season, when the Engineers stop by after Thanksgiving for another pair with ASU.

Expectations certainly were not high last season, but the Sun Devils cleared the low bar that was more or less set for them. They crushed their archrivals from Tucson (still playing club hockey) by 8-1 and 6-0 margins at opposite ends of the season, somewhat proving their advancement from club level. Against club teams as a whole, they went 5-0-0 and outscored opponents 35-3.

Against D-III competition, ASU was also undefeated, sweeping Southern New Hampshire at home in October by a combined 16-3 score, and tying UW-Eau Claire twice in February. Also a positive sign.

Against D-I teams? A much different story. Just three wins all season against 22 losses, 17 of which were by three or more goals. But even here, there's a silver lining. In their very first D-I matchup, the Sun Devils took Alaska-Anchorage to overtime before losing, and in their second, they defeated Alaska (Fairbanks) for their first ever Division I victory. They also swept an admittedly bad Lake Superior State team on the road in November.

Scoring was anemic against D-I teams, and this was ASU's biggest problem all year. They never scored three in a D-I game, and only reached two on four occasions (both Alaska games, a game against Clarkson, and a home game against UConn). At their worst offensive stretch between mid-December and mid-January, the Sun Devils scored just six goals in 11 games. The D-I season came to a brutal end in late January (as basically all teams are focused on conference play in February) with three games in three days against UMass-Lowell and Merrimack, which they lost at a combined 22-2, including a 10-0 loss to the Warriors to conclude the D-I portion of their first D-I season.

So there is still a gap, and that was always to be expected. But that gap should start closing sooner rather than later. ASU's 1.59 goals per game was worst in the country, but that's not some new benchmark for goal-scoring futility - Princeton a year earlier was at 1.30. Ultimately, Arizona State last year was about where they wanted to be, and where one would expect - better than club or D-III programs, but not quite ready to be steadily competitive in D-I.

They should be better this coming season, but it would have to be by absolute leaps and bounds for them to improve significantly over last year's D-I results.

Baillargeon is a graduate transfer from BU, where he led the Terriers in scoring as a freshman, although he hasn't been able to duplicate his numbers from that season he should still add a shot in the arm for the Sun Devils on experience alone. Masters had a decent freshman year as the pace-setter in scoring, as we mentioned last season he had some bonafides as a very strong player on his way into school and we can certainly expect him to continue to be a focal point for the ASU attack.

One of the bigger items on Arizona State's bucket list right now is defining the conference that they'll be joining in the near future - hopefully as soon as 2017. For a short time they were thought to be contestants for the Big Ten's eighth spot, that was shot down in late April. About the same time, they were rumored to be joining the NCHC, the conference that would probably make the most sense for them. That still has yet to happen, and the NCHC specifically shot down that rumor. The Sun Devils do need to finalize a conference sooner rather than later, if only to remove one of the remaining question marks on the program's long-term viability. With travel costs already weighing heavily on the WCHA, it seems like they may not be able to find a home there either if the NCHC balks.

Everything else, however, seems to be trending in the right direction. Greg Powers is doing a good job sectioning out the classes early on in order to avoid what is frequently a decade-long struggle for new programs to balance recruiting classes due to a usually abnormal-sized freshman class in the first season. With any luck, the Sun Devils are probably only a season or two from looking like a normal program in terms of class sizes. When that happens, expect the type of talent the program is already attracting to make the team far more formidable.

This season, for the third and fourth games in the nascent RPI-ASU series, even in the desert, it's almost certainly still a pair of games that the Engineers should be able to win, but the improved team and the change in venue will make for two games that will be more difficult than the two they fairly easily won in Troy - so there's going to be a natural let-down alert here. If RPI allows the Sun Devils to stick around, they'll be leaving things open for a serious upset.

By the way, if you are interested in attending either of these games, the recommendation is going to be to get tickets absolutely as soon as possible. Both will be played at ASU's super-small rink in Tempe that seats fewer than 1,000 people - and with the number of RPI alums that have likely retired to Arizona along with the likelihood of more than a few fans taking this unique trip, the tickets are likely to be in high demand. Two sold-out games are almost certainly going to happen here, so if you want to go, find out when tickets go on sale and get them quick.

Moving Parts

Yesterday, some big news hit the college hockey world - Notre Dame is moving out of Hockey East after the 2016-17 season concludes and joining the Big Ten as an associate member for hockey.

For those of you who have your ear to the ground, the move isn't terribly shocking. There have been murmurs that the Irish were unhappy in Hockey East for a little over a year, and obviously the Big Ten's struggles across their first three seasons have been well documented. This is a move that seems to make sense for both parties involved.

During the 2011 schism in the college hockey world caused by the formation of the Big Ten, Notre Dame's final landing spot was much debated. At the time, the Big Ten wasn't an option for them because the conference was not open to adding anyone who wasn't a member in every sport. That changed in 2013 when the Big Ten added Rutgers and Maryland to its ranks, two schools that sponsored lacrosse. With only five schools playing the sport, they added long-time independent Johns Hopkins (a D-III school in every other sport) for lacrosse only as an affiliate member to make six.

The Big Ten has lusted after Notre Dame's storied football program for decades, but that's always been a non-starter. So it's no surprise that the Big Ten, three years into a hockey experiment that has seen the conference embarrassed for basically all of the last two seasons with just one NCAA bid both years, was willing to admit the Fighting Irish this time around.

On Notre Dame's side, there's the understandable travel issue. While they had no problems financially taking a trip to New England every other weekend, and other teams didn't mind having to trek to Indiana once a year, the Irish had a problem with being the only team that had to go on long road trips all the time - a competitive balance issue. The travel within the mostly-Midwest Big 10 shouldn't be too much of an issue.

But that does now leave Hockey East with 11 teams, and moves the Big Ten to seven. The dominoes are starting to fall once more - and an odd number of teams is usually difficult to deal with on the long-term, due to issues with scheduling and playoff seeding. So what happens next?

Arizona State: The Sun Devils completed their first Division I season this year as an independent and they will do it again next year, this time with some additional home games against D-I teams. After that, they've said they want to be in a conference, and the Big Ten has long been touted as an understandable landing point. The one sticking point was considered to be the open question of whether the Big Ten would be OK with having affiliation in hockey. That question has certainly been resolved.

ASU may be in the hinterlands when it comes to hockey, but on the larger scale, they're a big deal - a power school in a power conference. But unless (until?) their Pac-12 brethren start adopting hockey, they need somewhere to reside. The only two conferences that ever made sense on a power and location basis were the Big Ten and the NCHC - the WCHA as it exists now is certainly too small to interest Arizona State.

With Notre Dame's decision and the news that ASU's discussions with the NCHC haven't been plentiful lately, it does seem like the Sun Devils becoming a second affiliate is a lot closer to reality. But it's not certain by any stretch of the imagination. ASU likely needs to start making some progress on their still nebulous plans for an on-campus rink. Their current homes are a tiny rink in Tempe that is the smallest in Division I and the Gila River Arena in Glendale (where the Coyotes play) that is the largest, impossible to fill.

But... who else could it be? Well, Miami has had some notable concerns about their travel situation in the NCHC. They've been strong enough in hockey for the last decade that the Big Ten might be willing to consider them as an affiliate (recall that Johns Hopkins is a lacrosse powerhouse, and Notre Dame is Notre Dame). That quality might open the door to North Dakota (who has traditional rivalries with Wisconsin and Minnesota) or Denver (certainly a storied enough program) as well, who would arguably have a better claim. Both of those schools, however, were among the driving forces behind the NCHC's very creation, and the NCHC certainly isn't having any problems.

Or, the Big Ten could stay with seven. It would be odd, but so is what they've already got going.

That leaves... Hockey East. With 11 teams, they're certainly going to want to get themselves back to 12. Five years ago, we pontificated on who the 12th team would be if Notre Dame was the 11th (basically at the bottom of that link). The answer ended up being UConn - but only after a serious change in their status quo fomented by their hockey loving governor.

Now, the question can be asked again, with UConn off the table. The top three answers are more or less the same.

Quinnipiac: Last time out, we thought Hockey East would arguably be more interested in RPI than in Quinnipiac despite the Bobcats having the newer facilities and the New England location. But in the last five years, there's no question that the Q has established themselves as a powerful program, and the opening in Hockey East probably couldn't have come at a better time if you're on the "Quinnipiac to Hockey East" bandwagon.

We still have to wait and see how the 2016 NCAA tournament plays out, but as the #1 overall seed, Quinnipiac have certainly made themselves the favorites to win the national championship. They played in the national championship game in 2013. The women's team is certainly on the rise, having just won the ECAC championship for the first time. Looking at things from Hockey East's perspective, there's no way at all that, among currently existing programs, they'd have anyone but the Bobcats at the top of their list.

The bigger question is this: does Quinnipiac really want to leave the ECAC? Five years ago, Hockey East was an obvious step up from the ECAC. Today it's still a step up, but it's not nearly as big - the gap has been closed slightly. And as things stand, it's hard to argue that Quinnipiac isn't one of the clear cut top programs in the league - which wouldn't necessarily be the case in Hockey East. Is it better to be a big fish in a smaller pond or a medium-sized fish in a bigger pond? That's the question that Quinnipiac will likely be asking itself.

Hockey East does have some benefits that the ECAC can't offer - national exposure is still far higher in Hockey East. But the ECAC also offers Quinnipiac guaranteed games with Yale every year, something they seem to cherish. The Yale-Quinnipiac "rivalry" is still very one-sided even despite (perhaps even because of) the 2013 national championship game. It's basically RPI-Union from the late-1990s, with Yale playing the role of RPI. Will Yale ever really care about Q though, at least enough to play them regularly in different conferences? It's hard to get an Ivy League team to care about a non-Ivy. That's just history working against the non-Ivy, and history trumps geography big time.

Holy Cross: The Crusaders are still kinda there in the discussion if only because they're right smack in the middle of the league's footprint. But nothing has changed in Worcester since 2011. They're still kinda middling in Atlantic Hockey. They're still playing in the same small rink on campus attached to their basketball court (which will be renovated soon, but not made bigger or more impressive). Their women's team is still in Division III. If anything, things may have dipped a bit for Holy Cross. Paul Pearl, an alum who was head coach of the team for almost 20 years, left in 2014 to become an assistant at Harvard. And they haven't been back to the NCAA tournament since that well-known upset of Minnesota in 2006.

The hangup in 2004 when Holy Cross applied to the ECAC was that they weren't interested in paying equal attention to their women's team. There doesn't seem to be anything that's changed there, which makes CHC a tough sell to Hockey East.

RPI: Much has changed for the Engineers in the last five years. Back then, we thought RPI might have made the most sense for Hockey East, and they probably still did if UConn's sudden epiphany had not happened. Much of what we wrote back then remains true.

But from RPI's perspective, the allure of staying in the ECAC has certainly changed. While five years ago we pondered that an RPI move to Hockey East could strengthen the program simply by playing in a higher-end conference, today the Engineers are playing in a conference that has produced two of the last three (and are favorites to make it three of the last four) national champions. The move would be slightly more lateral than it had been back then, and that makes the difference in the academic profile a bit more difficult to deal with.

And this time around, they're definitely second banana to Quinnipiac as things stand, at least from a Hockey East perspective.

More on this in the near future. As with five years ago, the topic of RPI to Hockey East deserves a more detailed look at this blog.

So... what if there's an open spot in the ECAC? What happens then?

Holy Cross: Basically, the same as above. There's no way Holy Cross goes anywhere unless they agree to move women's hockey to Division I, and if they're happy with where it is right now, they're probably happy being in Atlantic Hockey.

RIT: If only Rochester were closer to... Albany, or Worcester, or something, RIT is the totally obvious choice. Academics, history, everything's there. They'd be an 8th program without athletic scholarships.

The problem - and this is a problem - is that the ECAC has a really good thing going with its travel partner system, and RIT doesn't fit into it well. It might work if RPI ends up bailing for Hockey East, but almost certainly wouldn't if it's Quinnipiac. Without RPI, Union is orphaned, and one could see a Colgate-Union pairing and a Cornell-RIT pairing sort of working (or Colgate-RIT and Cornell-Union). If Quinnipiac bounces, Princeton could go back with Yale, but who does RIT pair with that doesn't turn that road trip (and likely, others) into a nightmare? It's a logistical problem for a league that depends on some easier travel schedules to stay a manageable bus league.

If RIT comes large with an ECAC bid, the league could certainly bend quite a bit in order to make it work, especially since they'd add a solid following. There's a lot that RIT has going for it and, geography aside, they bring everything you'd want to the table. But whatever they come up with has got to fit with the Ivy League's preferences, too. The Ivies have the power to blow up the league, so that makes their opinion matter just a little bit more.

Bentley or Sacred Heart: They fit the footprint, but not the gusto. Bentley at least is taking steps in the right direction on getting themselves an on-campus rink, but neither are ready for a step out of Atlantic Hockey.

Army: They've been in the ECAC in the past, and they're a fellow Patriot League member with Colgate, but if you can find anything that would suggest that they'd have a better time in the ECAC than the last time they were there that led to their departure, we'd love to hear about it.

Mercyhurst, Niagara, Canisius, or Robert Morris: No shot. Too far away for all of them. Canisius at least has a sparkly new rink, but that's about it.

American Interna OK, I can't even get to the joke here.

So the quick answer is that there's no really good answer to who makes the ECAC "whole" again if Quinnipiac or RPI leave. And that's problematic for the five non-Ivies that would be left - because if the Ivy League isn't satisfied with how things shake out, they've always got the option of striking out on their own, an option which arguably created Hockey East in the first place.

The real answer of "which team would best make #12" is a team that hasn't been around since 1978: Penn. The Quakers would pair supernaturally well with Princeton, and everything else would stay the same. Unfortunately there's no magic pixie dust that can be used to re-create a team at Penn in order to save the ECAC's bacon. Not to mention that Penn's addition would only make for a stronger possibility of an independent Ivy League down the road, possibly one day made whole if they ever learn about hockey in Morningside Heights.

Bottom line? It's time to tread carefully right now, especially if you're Hockey East and Quinnipiac is unavailable, because there's no other really good answer for #12. If you're Quinnipiac and RPI, you've got to ask yourself if moving to Hockey East is really the best long-term plan, and if not, is the ECAC going to stay iron clad after Hockey East gains a new member?

Men's Hockey - Arizona State (11/12 Dec)

The first half of the regular season rolled to a close with a non-conference weekend against the Sun Devils of Arizona State, a first-year program arguably the weakest opponent on RPI's schedule this year. While such weekends have often left Engineers fans nervous about success, RPI left no doubt in taking care of business at home, sweeping ASU 5-1 and 4-1 on back-to-back nights to halt their winless streak at three and give the Engineers a run of 12 games unbeaten in their last 14 for calendar year 2015.

Friday
Melanson-Bubela-Wood
Liljegren-Miller-Rodriguez
Bourbonnais-Schroeder-Nanne
Ohrvall-Fulton-Gillespie

Bradley-Prapavessis
Grant-Reno
Moore-Hampton

Kasdorf

The most significant change in the RPI lineup was the splitting of the vaunted "M-N-M" line, as the top three lines each included a member of the Engineers' most prolific attacking trio of the last two seasons. Fresh off his shutout against Harvard, Jason Kasdorf's number was called for the second consecutive night - while Jared Wilson was out of the lineup for an undisclosed reason.

It took RPI a little bit of time to get things going in the early going - Arizona State actually hit the post about 8 minutes into the game for the closest either team came to scoring to that point - but once they found paydirt, things began to accelerate. A drop pass by Jake Wood for Drew Melanson ended with the sophomore picking out his corner to beat ASU's Ryland Pashovitz top shelf to put the Engineers ahead 1-0. Then, just 15 seconds later, Riley Bourbonnais scored his 9th goal of the season, crashing the net to put home a shot by Lou Nanne to give RPI the 2-0 edge.

Minutes later, the Sun Devils got a huge opportunity to get themselves back into the game with a long 5-on-3 power play thanks to successive penalties by Melanson and Mike Prapavessis. The RPI penalty kill, strong in recent weeks, held up to the scrutiny, and the Engineers closed out the first period with the 2-0 edge on a 15-7 lead in shots.

RPI hit the gas again in the second period, going up 3-0 on the first collegiate goal for Jesper Ohrvall about seven minutes in. Waiting just outside the crease, the freshman backhanded to the roof of the cage a rebound off a shot by Kenny Gillespie as part of a barrage that saw the Engineers lace Pashovitz with 16 shots in the middle stanza.

Jake Wood's 6th goal of the year came just over five minutes into the third period, basically sealing the game up tight on a tight-angle shot to Pashovitz's left. ASU would spoil Jason Kasdorf's bid for a second straight shutout with a power play goal by Joey Raats with six minutes left to play, but RPI gained the four-goal lead back three-and-a-half minutes later with Ohrvall connecting for the second time on the evening, going north-south and goalpost to goalpost before shooting to the back of the cage to make it 5-1 RPI.

The Engineers unleashed 45 shots on the evening to power the victory, while Kasdorf finished with a respectable 23 saves on 24 shots for his fourth win of the year.

Saturday
Melanson-Bubela-Wood
Liljegren-Miller-Rodriguez
Bourbonnais-Schroeder-Nanne
Ohrvall-Fulton-Gillespie

Bradley-Grant
Prapavessis-Reno
Moore-Hampton

Hackett

A minor swap on defense as Tommy Grant was paired off with Chris Bradley (which happened late in Friday's game), while Mike Prapavessis and Parker Reno, RPI's top two assist leaders, were also paired off. Cam Hackett also got some additional playing time in as the Engineers' split the weekend in net.

RPI wasted little time in picking up where they left off the previous night, and once again, an RPI freshman managed to notch his first collegiate goal in the process. Five minutes into the game, a loose puck bounced to the top of the slot, and Tommy Grant moved up from the blue line to rip one through traffic to the net for the 1-0 lead on Grant's first college point.

But that was as far as the Engineers would get in the first period - they seemed to lack the urgency they played with on Friday night, urgency that had ASU coach Greg Powers calling RPI the hardest working team the Sun Devils had played against to that point. Shots in the first period were relatively even at 10-9 Engineers, and it looked like there'd be a possession fight over the last 40 minutes.

There was a different kind of fight instead about six minutes into the second period - not a full blown scrap, but a serious bout of pushing and shoving that resulted in two Arizona State penalties against just one for RPI, creating a power play for the Engineers. Jesper Ohrvall solved RPI's long-running power play woes, at least for one outing, by notching his third goal of the weekend by sending a nice feed from Meirs Moore into the net about 30 seconds into the man advantage to put the Engineers ahead 2-0.

Late in the period, a power play chance for ASU while the Sun Devils trailed 2-0 gave them the golden opportunity to get back into the game for the second consecutive night. And while RPI's penalty kill did their part by killing off the penalty, the aggressive kill also lengthened the Engineer lead. A clearance by Phil Hampton went to Riley Bourbonnais, who had snuck behind the ASU blueline along with Milos Bubela. A 2-on-0 breakaway was put home by Bubela, who scored his third short-handed goal of the season to make it 3-0 RPI, capping a dominant second period in which the Sun Devils simply could not control the puck for any serious stretch of time, as borne out by the 14-3 edge in shots for the Engineers.

As on Friday night, the Sun Devils avoided being shut out in the final 10 minutes of regulation, this time scoring an even-strength goal as they slowly, across the third period, began to swing some momentum back in their direction. Cody Gylling's third goal of the season on a 2-on-1 break with 7:24 left in the 3rd period spoiled Hackett's push for his first collegiate shutout, but that was as much as ASU would be able to muster. Bourbonnais scored his third point of the evening and 10th goal of the year with an empty-netter in the final minute to give RPI a 4-1 victory and the weekend sweep.

So ends the first half of the season - RPI now has a three-week break for the holidays, picking back up on the road against Miami. The RedHawks have struggled this season, to an extent that we haven't seen in the previous three seasons in which RPI and Miami have done battle. The RedHawks have won seven in a row against the Engineers, including six in the Appert era, but if RPI can return from break playing the way they have for the last two months, they may be able to find a breakthrough of some kind in Ohio.

Current ECAC Standings
1. Quinnipiac - 14 pts (6-0-2)
2. Cornell - 13 pts (6-1-1)
3. Harvard - 11 pts (4-1-3)
4. RPI - 11 pts (4-1-3)
5. St. Lawrence - 9 pts (4-2-1)
6. Yale - 8 pts (3-3-2)
7. Princeton - 6 pts (3-5-0)
8. Dartmouth - 6 pts (3-5-0)
9. Brown - 6 pts (2-5-2)
10. Union - 5 pts (2-5-1)
11. Colgate - 5 pts (2-6-1)
12. Clarkson - 2 pts (0-5-2)

By winning percentage
1. Quinnipiac (.875)
2. Cornell (.812)
3. Harvard (.688)
4. RPI (.688)
5. St. Lawrence (.643)
6. Yale (.500)
7. Princeton (.375)
8. Dartmouth (.375)
9. Brown (.333)
10. Union (.312)
11. Colgate (.278)
12. Clarkson (.143)

Arizona State at RPI

Non-Conference Game - Houston Field House (Troy, NY)
12/11/15 - 7:00pm

RESULT: RPI 5, Arizona State 1

BOX SCORES
College Hockey Stats
USCHO

RECAPS
RPI
Troy Record
Albany Times Union

VIDEO
Highlights
Full game
Appert post-game

RECORD: 9-6-3 (4-1-3 ECAC, 11 pts)

Arizona State at RPI
Non-Conference Game - Houston Field House (Troy, NY)
11/12/15 - 7:00pm

RESULT: RPI 4, Arizona State 1

BOX SCORES
College Hockey Stats
USCHO

RECAPS
RPI
Troy Record
Albany Times Union

VIDEO
Highlights
Full game
Appert post-game

RECORD: 10-6-3 (4-1-3 ECAC, 11 pts)

Upcoming games
02 Jan - at Miami
03 Jan - at Miami
07 Jan - at Princeton
15 Jan - #9 Cornell
16 Jan - Colgate

Devilish

So, what do we know about Arizona State? The basic details.

* They're not as young as you'd think. At an average age of 22 years and 2 months, the Sun Devils are tied for the 17th oldest team in the nation in just their first Division I season. (RPI's average age is 21 years and 7 months.)

* Still, they've got a lot of freshmen. 15 of them on their 33 man roster, although one is redshirting.

* Nearly all of them, including the ones who were brought up from their club team, played junior hockey at a fairly high level - many from the USHL, NAHL, and the BCHL.

* They've won three games against Division I opponents - one against Alaska on "neutral" ice in Anchorage, two against Lake State in Sault Ste. Marie.

* Pounded arch-rivals Arizona (still a club team) 8-1 in their first game, and annihilated D-III Southern New Hampshire by a 16-3 margin in two games. They're very legit D-I already.

* Led Clarkson 2-1 in Potsdam in the 2nd period before falling 3-2 and then 4-1 the next night.

* According to KRACH, they're at least better than Sacred Heart, Canisius, Niagara, and American International already. Two of those have been to the NCAA tournament recently.

So if you're expecting the Engineers to just waltz into this one without cares, rack up goals, and go home happy, you're probably going to be disappointed.

First off, that really doesn't happen with RPI - they do have an earned reputation for playing to the level of their opponent, which is something they should probably focus on this weekend - play their game, not the opponent's game.

Second, Arizona State's certainly not bad. They've only been shut out twice, and one of those was Quinnipiac.

But... Jason Kasdorf and Cam Hackett are probably the best two goaltenders they've seen since playing Michael Garteig and the Bobcats. Especially if Kasdorf can keep up his momentum from his amazing 43-save comeback against Harvard, and if Hackett can keep playing like he's been playing, it's probably going to be a long weekend for the Sun Devils.

RPI's focus has got to be on not having a letdown against a team they know they should be able to beat. That's been the struggle in recent years. End the calendar year on a positive note and come back in three weeks picking up where they left off. That's what we need to see - so they certainly need to show off a little devil here tonight.

Know Your Enemy: Arizona State

Well, here's a Know Your Enemy we'd have never expected to be presenting a year ago at this time. That's because this team wasn't even on the NCAA Division I radar at that time, to say nothing of expecting to have a basically full varsity schedule for the 2015-16 season. A lot can change in five months, though. Last October, there was some buzz about the idea that Michigan would be the first Power Five conference school to visit RPI in several years. There was no way to know at that time that they'd be preceded by Boston College, and that the wait to see another Power Five school following the Wolverines would be less than two months. This December, the new kids on the block are also coming to town.

Arizona State
Nickname: Sun Devils
Location: Tempe, AZ
Founded: 1885
Conference: Independent (Pac-12)
National Championships: None
Last NCAA Appearance: None
Coach: Greg Powers (6th season)
2014-15 Record: 33-4-1 (14-2-0 WCHL, 1st place)
Series: First meeting

2015-16 games: December 11-12, 2015 (Troy, NY)

Key players: F Liam Norris, sr.; D Jordan Young, sr.; F Ryan Belonger, jr.; F Sean Murphy, jr.; D Brock Krygier, jr.; G Robert Levin, jr.; F Eric Rivard, jr.; D Connor Schmidt, jr.; D Ed McGovern, so.; D Drew Newmayer, so.; F Brett Gruber, fr.; D Nicholas Gushue, fr.; F Matt Kennedy, fr.; F Joe Lappin, fr.; F Jordan Masters, fr.; F Louie Rowe, fr.; F Charlie Zuccarini, fr.

Hockey in the Valley of the Sun has a fairly recent genesis, as you can probably imagine. While most of the attention focuses on the arrival of the Winnipeg Jets in 1996 as the new Phoenix (and now Arizona) Coyotes, and the troubles that the franchise has had in the desert over the last 20 or so years, Arizona State was actually one of the original focal points of the growth of the sport in a region that doesn't have an awful lot of water, to say nothing of temperatures low enough to make ice.

In the early 1980s, Arizona State students trekked north from Tempe to the growing city of Phoenix's only full-service ice arena, Tower Ice Plaza, for open skating opportunities. Those interested in playing hockey often engaged in small pickup games among each other, and this turned into a small intramural league. The growing popularity of that league coincided with the rise of club hockey on college campuses around the nation, and by the late 1980s, ASU had its own club team, participating in the Division II level of club hockey.

Varsity hockey had been tried in the Grand Canyon State, and it had failed miserably. The Northern Arizona Lumberjacks in Flagstaff were a varsity program for just five seasons in the early 80s, but the cost of the program, along with Title IX concerns, saw the team scuttled. Club hockey then, as it is now, was highly regionalized - the vast bulk of programs are found in schools in the north and in the east - so Arizona State out of the southwest was an odd bird indeed, but the size of the school and the lack of other nearby programs helped it stand out in the region. The Sun Devils began drawing local talent from a growing hockey region, especially in Southern California, taking in players who wanted to play the game in college but weren't quite good enough for big-time varsity play.

Before long, the Sun Devils were one of the more dominant club teams in Division II. Looking to emulate the growing community support from their rivals to the south at the University of Arizona, the Sun Devils moved to Division I play in 1993. Just two seasons later, ASU was playing in the Division I national tournament, their first of three consecutive appearances there in the mid-1990s. By the year 2000, ASU was certainly a force to be reckoned with nationally in club hockey, regularly making appearances in the national tournament but never quite getting over the hump until 2014, when the Sun Devils not only qualified for their very first national championship game, but won it all for their first national title.

Over time, with the growth of hockey in the southwest thanks to the arrival of the NHL in teams like the Coyotes, Arizona State not only became attractive for budding local players, but it also became a place where stronger players from Canada and the American Northeast sought to play as an alternative to playing in Division III. The rationale was simple: ASU was a name-brand school playing a higher level of hockey than most club teams and doing it in a place where you could leave practice in the middle of January wearing just a t-shirt and shorts.

ASU's ascent into the ranks of varsity hockey began innocently in July 2014, with a student reporter asking the school's athletic director and head coach Greg Powers - who had played goalie for the Sun Devils club team in the late 1990s - what it would take for the national club champions to play at the varsity level. The AD had a one word answer: money. Powers had the specifics: between $30 and $40 million.

The story went online. Most comments left on the page scoffed at the idea. But one person who read the story - a team benefactor with means - found the idea irresistible. Within hours, Don Mullett, a businessman in Wisconsin whose son had played for the Sun Devils, inquired about making a donation. Four months and $32 million later, Arizona State was announcing a varsity program, ready to begin play the following season and playing in a conference by 2017.

Unlike the donation made by Terry Pegula at Penn State, which fully funds the team, Mullett's donation merely provides the startup capital, leaving ASU on the hook for ongoing support. But all indications are that Arizona State is all systems go for a full commitment to the future of varsity hockey at the school.

Arizona State's entry into the NCAA has opened a new frontier in college hockey - aside from the Alaska schools, college hockey hasn't extended farther west than Colorado since the demise of the Great West Hockey Conference in the 1980s. But ASU is coming out of Division I club's WCHL, a conference which also includes Arizona and Colorado from the Pac-12, and every other Pac-12 school has a club program competing in the Division II Pac-8, with the exception of Stanford (playing Division III club) and Oregon State (which has no team).

But for now, it's just ASU holding down the varsity fort in the southwest, and they're already reaping the same benefits they did as a club outpost, only now they're drawing Division I level talent. The Sun Devils already boast a fairly impressive recruiting class, especially for an independent team. Masters, out of Rochester, played for Seth Appert and with Lou Nanne on the 2011 Ivan Hlinka team. Zuccarini was one of the top scorers in the BCHL this past season.

ASU's 29-man roster will include 12 players who were involved with the Sun Devils' club program. Two transfers from Nebraska-Omaha and American International will have to sit out the season, but Krygier, a transfer from Michigan State, will be eligible immediately. Belonger (Northeastern) and Schmidt (Ferris State) also have previous NCAA D-I experience.

For the most part, the older players on the squad are guys who played club hockey, while the core of the Sun Devils' talent will be in younger players, especially the freshmen. ASU's prospects may be fairly bright in the long-term, but for a program leaping directly into the fire of a Division I season less than a year after announcing their move to the varsity, next year could be a very difficult struggle. Especially playing at home, the Engineers should be favored to win both games against the Sun Devils, but Arizona State certainly has enough potential in its underclassmen to keep things from getting too embarrassing. These aren't going to be games a team like RPI is going to be able to sleepwalk through - not that this program has really proven to have any games they could just sleepwalk through in the last several years.

RPI will be neither ASU's first varsity trip to the east, nor the first ECAC team they face off with. Those honors both go to Clarkson in November. And yes, since you're all asking the question like giddy schoolchildren - RPI is expected to return the favor with a trip to Arizona, either in 2016-17 or 2017-18, more than likely the former. Pack your bags.