#4/#4 North Dakota (18-6-0 overall, 10-2-0-2 NCHC) travels to Tempe, Arizona to face unranked Arizona State (12-11-1 overall, 4-5-2-1 NCHC) at Mullett Arena this weekend. This key league series will mark just the sixth and seventh times that the two teams have ever met on the ice.
Despite the difference in records to this point in the season, it is worth noting that back on November 15th, the Sun Devils handed UND one of its two regulation losses in league play. ASU won that game 4-2 in Grand Forks despite being outshot 41-15. Arizona State was able to come out on top by scoring two goals in the last three minutes of the second period, including a back-breaking goal with just six seconds remaining.
One night earlier, the Fighting Hawks outshot ASU 43-21 and throttled the visitors by a final score of 5-2.
Here is a look back at the other three games in series history…
The Fighting Hawks traveled to Tempe in January 2025 for a weekend series and dropped the opener by a final score of 4-1. Saturday’s rematch was a back-and-forth affair highlighted by specialty teams goals, including a shorthanded goal and three power play markers. North Dakota got the better of it by scoring an extra attacker goal with just 28 seconds remaining in regulation and a 3-on-3 tally midway through overtime. UND outshot the Sun Devils 64-55 in the two games.
On October 29th, 2022, UND and ASU battled at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, with the Sun Devils coming back from a 2-0 deficit and prevailing by a final score of 3-2. Former UND netminder T.J. Semptimphelter was the winning goaltender for Arizona State in that contest; he only had to make thirteen saves to secure the victory.
That loss was the second straight destination-game defeat for the Green and White, as they also lost 6-4 to Penn State at Bridgestone Arena (Nashville, Tennessee) on October 30th, 2021.
Prior to those two losses, North Dakota had won four straight showcase events:
2012: Bell MTS Place (Winnipeg, Manitoba)
North Dakota 3, Clarkson 1
2013: T.D. Ameritrade Park (Omaha, Nebraska)
North Dakota 5, Omaha 2
2016: Madison Square Garden (New York City)
North Dakota 4, Boston College 3
2018: Orleans Arena (Las Vegas, Nevada)
North Dakota 3, Minnesota 1
UND’s next destination game has been scheduled for Saturday, October 31st, 2026 in Austin, Texas; the opponent for the 2026 Hall Of Fame Game will be Michigan State.
Prior to last season, the Sun Devils competed at the Division I level in men’s ice hockey as an independent for nine seasons, with mixed results:
2015-2018 (three seasons): 21-62-8 (.275)
2018-2020 (two seasons): 43-24-4 (.634) and two NCAA tournament bids
2020-2023 (three seasons): 42-54-4 (.440)
2023-2024 (one season): 24-8-6 (.711)
In the fall of 2022, ASU moved from Oceanside Ice Arena to Mullett Arena, a beautiful 5,000 seat rink on the Arizona State University Campus. Mullett, also known as “The Party Barn”, served as a temporary home for the NHL’s Arizona Coyotes before that team’s hockey assets (players, staff, and draft picks) were transferred to the Utah Hockey Club, an expansion franchise based in Salt Lake City.
Last season – Arizona State’s first in the NCHC – the Sun Devils went 21-14 2 overall with a league mark of 12-4-3-5, good for second place. After dispatching the Minnesota Duluth Bulldogs in the first round of the conference playoffs, ASU met up with Denver in the NCHC Frozen Faceoff semifinals (St. Paul, Minnesota). The Pioneers would defeat the Sun Devils 4-2 to put an end to an otherwise successful season.
UND is nine years removed from its eighth national championship but has made the national tournament in just four of the past eight seasons. That track record – and some early playoff exits – led to a coaching change, and Dane Jackson is now leading the charge.
In the NCHC preseason poll, UND was picked to finish in third place (behind Western Michigan and Denver), while the Sun Devils were tabbed to end up in fourth.
So far this season, the NCHC has won nearly seventy percent of its non-conference games (62-29-2, .677) and has four teams (#3 Western Michigan, #4 North Dakota, #7 Minnesota Duluth, and #9 Denver) positioned in the top ten in the latest rankings.
North Dakota finished up its non-conference schedule with two home victories over Mercyhurst three weeks ago (2-0, 6-1). The Fighting Hawks went a combined 8-2 vs. St. Thomas (sweep), Minnesota (split), Clarkson (split), Bemidji State (sweep), and Mercyhurst (sweep). Those results – combined with a record of 10-2-0-2 in conference play – have North Dakota sitting at #3 (behind only Michigan and Michigan State) in the NCAA Percentage Index (NPI) rankings used to seed the NCAA tournament.
Western Michigan did the entire league a favor by defeating both #15 Boston College and #5 Wisconsin at the Holiday Faceoff in late December Those results added to the league’s already-impressive results against the other five conferences in college hockey.
The NCHC has been the premier hockey conference since its inception, and particularly over the past twelve seasons. The nine teams in the league have gone 602-310-81 (.647) in non-conference action since the start of the 2014-15 season and sent fifteen teams to the Frozen Four (UND and Omaha in 2015, UND and Denver in 2016, Denver and Duluth in 2017, Duluth in 2018, Denver and Duluth in 2019, Duluth and St. Cloud State in 2021, Denver in 2022 and 2024, and Denver and Western Michigan in 2025 over that nine-year stretch (there was no national tournament in 2020). Conference members North Dakota (2016), Denver (2017, 2022, 2024), Minnesota Duluth (2018, 2019), and Western Michigan (2025) have won seven of the last nine national titles.
Turning our attention to this weekend’s action…
A half point per game or better is my benchmark for solid offensive production, and ASU head coach Greg Powers will have just THREE players who have contributed at that level: junior forward Bennett Schimek (10-21-31), senior forward Cruz Lucius (12-20-32), and junior forward Kyle Smolen (3-9-12).
Sophomore forward Cullen Potter (12-14-26) sustained a season-ending upper body injury against Miami last weekend.
Freshman forward Jack Beck had a fine start to his season (five goals and three assists in his first ten collegiate games), but he suffered a season-ending injury and has not played since November 29th.
Bennett Schimek (Mendota Heights, Minnesota) was wearing a non-contact jersey at practice this week and is questionable for this weekend; Schimek played his first two seasons at Providence before transferring to Tempe prior to the 2024-2025 campaign. He put up a line of 15-22-37 in 35 games with the Sun Devils last year.
Cruz Lucius (Grant, Minnesota) scored 68 points in 70 games over two seasons with the Wisconsin Badgers (2022-2024) before making the jump to the NCHC. Lucius missed the first half of last year with a torn labrum but has scored 14 goals and 42 points in his 43 games with the Sun Devils.
North Dakota boasts much more impressive scoring depth, with ten players expected in the lineup this weekend scoring a half-point per game or better: freshman forward Cole Reschny (4-20-24), senior forward Ellis Rickwood (5-13-18), senior forward Ben Strinden (13-10-23), freshman forward Will Zellers (10-7-17), senior forward Dylan James (13-5-18), sophomore forward Mac Swanson (4-11-15), sophomore forward Cade Littler (4-7-11), junior defenseman Jake Livanavage (4-17-21), freshman defenseman Keaton Verhoeff (4-8-12), and junior defenseman Abram Wiebe (3-11-14).
Freshman forward Josh Zakreski had a fine start to his season, with one goal and two assists in his first six collegiate games, but he was injured in practice in October and has not returned to the lineup.
One key area to watch this weekend is the face-off circle. To this point in the season, the Fighting Hawks have won 52.7% of faceoffs, good for 16th in the country. By comparison, the Sun Devils are 14th in the nation (52.8%).
For UND, senior transfer Ellis Rickwood (who spent his first three collegiate seasons with Clarkson) has been a huge addition up the middle, winning 208 of 342 (60.8%). Three freshmen – Cole Reschny (172 of 315, 54.6%), Ollie Josephson (159 of 299, 53.2%), and Jack Kernan (74 of 135, 54.8%) have performed admirably as well.
Arizona State will counter with juniors Sean McGurn (146 of 258, 56.6%), Logan Morrell (227 of 393, 57.8%), and Kyle Smolen (148 of 292, 58.8%).
UND fans should expect the Green and White to have the puck an awful lot this weekend; to this point in the season, the Fighting Hawks have far outpaced the Sun Devils in two key puck possession statistics:
North Dakota: 3rd in Corsi (57.2%) and 4th in Fenwick (57.3%)
Arizona State: 39th in Corsi (48.5%) and 42nd in Fenwick (48.1%)
Corsi measures the share of shot attempts for each team at even strength, while Fenwick measures the share of unblocked shot attempts for each team at even strength.
Even though UND only outscored the Sun Devils 7-6 in the two-game series split in Grand Forks in mid-November, the underlying metrics strongly favored the home team:
Shots on goal: UND 84, ASU 36
Shot attempts: UND 142, ASU 85
Expected goals: UND 8.5, ASU 4.3
To make matters worse for Arizona State, the Fighting Hawks also boast the nation’s third-best power play, clipping along at 28.7 percent (although UND just went 0-for-7 against Denver last weekend). ASU is scoring on 22.2 percent of man advantage opportunities (17th in the country).
UND’s penalty kill has been steadily improving, and that unit is now negating opponent power plays at a clip of 83.1% (23rd). The Fighting Hawks have scored and allowed four shorthanded goals this season.
On the penalty kill, Arizona State has been slightly better, with a success rate of 83.5% (22nd). This season, the Sun Devils have scored one shorthanded goal while allowing four.
Overall, UND is plus-12 on specialty teams, while ASU is plus-4.
Through 24 games, the Green and White have blocked 280 shots, led by Bennett Zmolek with 36 and Jake Livanavage with 30. Arizona State has blocked an astounding 346 shots in the same number of games, with Joel Kjellberg (42), Brasen Boser (40), Justin Kipkie (29), and Richard Baran (29) leading the charge.
North Dakota’s defensive corps has provided plenty of production from the back end, already notching fourteen goals and adding 51 assists in 166 combined games (0.39 points per game).
The nine Arizona State blueliners to play this season have combined for just five goals and 27 assists in 164 combined games played (0.20 points per game). Freshman Justin Kipkie leads the way with two goals and nine points, followed by sophomores Joel Kjellberg (1-5-6) and Brasen Boser (0-5-5). Boser is from Minot, North Dakota, while freshman defenseman Lincoln Kuehne (nine blocks in twenty games played) is from Fargo.
For the Fighting Hawks, it’s been two juniors – Jake Livanavage (4-17-21) and Abram Wiebe (3-11-14) – and a freshman (Keaton Verhoeff, with four goals and eight assists).
Verhoeff is widely expected to go in the top three of the 2026 NHL Entry Draft, while Livanavage (4-24-28 in 2024-25) and Wiebe (4-20-24) were two of UND’s top four point-getters a season ago.
Jake Livanavage is North Dakota’s lone candidate for the Hobey Baker Memorial Award. Livanavage plays more than 24 minutes per game and is useful in all situations; he has a plus-14 rating this season.
Arizona State has two senior forwards among the eighteen Hobey Baker nominees hailing from the NCHC: Cruz Lucius (12-20-32) and Bennett Schimek (10-21-31).
Not only have North Dakota’s defensemen been producing offensively, first-year head coach Dane Jackson has also put together an impressive mix of defenders he can trust in any situation. As a unit, UND’s defensemen have allowed just 2.08 goals against (5th in the country) and 22.8 shots on goal per game (1st).
Fighting Hawks’ graduate netminder Gibson Homer (6-4-0, 2.43 goals-against average, .895 save percentage) started each of the first four games of the season and then split the next four weekends with freshman Jan Spunar (12-2-0, 1.64 GAA, .927 SV%, three shutouts) before giving way to Spunar entirely over the next two weekends (home-and-home with Bemidji State and at St. Cloud State). Both goaltenders earned starts in home series vs. Omaha and Mercyhurst before the freshman started both nights at Colorado College and vs. Denver; I would expect Spunar to get the nod in tonight’s opener, with Homer – who played his first three seasons at Arizona State – manning the crease in the rematch.
Here is a quick peek at how North Dakota and Arizona State stack up in various categories:
Goals per game: ASU 3.04 (30th of 63 teams); UND 3.75 (6th)
Goals allowed per game: ASU 3.08 (41st); UND 2.08 (5th)
Shooting percentage: ASU 10.1% (29th); UND 11.7% (6th)
Save percentage: ASU .910 (18th); UND .909 (19th)
Shots on goal/game: ASU 30.0 (27th); UND 32.0 (19th)
Shots on goal allowed/game: ASU 34.4 (56th); UND 22.8 (1st)
After this weekend’s action, North Dakota will have eight league games remaining before the NCHC playoffs begin on Friday, March 6th:
January 30th and 31st: no games scheduled
February 6th and 7th: at Minnesota Duluth (NPI 4)
February 13th and 14th: vs. Miami (NPI 24)
February 20th and 21st: vs. St. Cloud State (NPI 16)
February 27th and 28th: at Western Michigan (NPI 5)
Arizona State Team Profile
Head Coach: Greg Powers (11th season at ASU, 163-173-25, .486)
National Ranking: NR/NR
NPI Ranking: 22nd
KRACH: 162.0 (20th)
This Season: 12-11-1 overall, 4-5-2-1 NCHC (t-5th of 9 teams)
Last Season: 21-14-2 overall (missed NCAA tournament); 12-4-3-5 NCHC (2nd)
2025-26 Season Statistics:
Team Offense: 3.04 goals scored/game – 30th of 63 teams
Team Defense: 3.08 goals allowed/game – 41st of 63 teams
Power Play: 22.2% (20 of 90) – 17th of 63 teams
Penalty Kill: 83.5% (66 of 79) – 22nd of 63 teams
Key Players: Junior F Bennett Schimek (10-21-31), Senior F Cruz Lucius (12-20-32), Sophomore F Cullen Potter (12-14-26), Junior F Kyle Smolen (3-9-12), Sophomore D Joel Kjellberg (1-5-6), Sophomore D Brasen Boser (0-5-5), Senior G Connor Hasley (8-7-0, 2.59 GAA, .920 SV%)
North Dakota Team Profile
Head Coach: Dane Jackson (1st season at North Dakota, 18-6-0, .750)
National Rankings: #4/#4
NPI Ranking: 3rd
KRACH Rating: 453.4 (3rd)
This Season: 18-6-0 overall, 10-2-0-2 NCHC (1st)
Last Season: 21-15-2 overall (missed NCAA tournament), 11-8-4-1 NCHC (5th)
2025-26 Season Statistics:
Team Offense: 3.75 goals scored/game – 6th of 63 teams
Team Defense: 2.08 goals allowed/game – 5th of 63 teams
Power Play: 28.7% (25 of 87) – 3rd of 63 teams
Penalty Kill: 83.1% (64 of 77) – 23rd of 63 teams
Key Players: Freshman F Cole Reschny (4-20-24), Senior F Ben Strinden (13-10-23), Freshman F Will Zellers (10-7-17), Senior F Dylan James (13-5-18), Sophomore F Mac Swanson (4-11-15), Senior F Ellis Rickwood (5-13-18), Junior D Jake Livanavage (4-17-21), Junior D Abram Wiebe (3-11-14), Freshman D Keaton Verhoeff (4-8-12), Freshman G Jan Spunar (12-2-0, 1.64 GAA, .927 SV%, 3 SO)
Game News and Notes
Arizona State has been outscored 32-25 in third periods this season, while North Dakota has outscored opponents 34-13 in final frames. In 2023-24, Arizona State played its last season as an independent. Despite a record of 24-8-6, the Sun Devils finished in 20th in the Pairwise and missed the NCAA tournament. Fighting Hawks graduate netminder Gibson Homer spent his first three collegiate seasons at ASU. Greg Powers has been the only head coach in Arizona State Division I men’s hockey history. Powers, a former goaltender from the Sun Devils’ club level (WCHL/ACHA) days, graduated from ASU in 1999 and is a member of the Arizona State Athletic Hall of Fame. Mullett Arena seats just 5,000 fans; I would expect more than half of them to be wearing green this weekend.
Media Coverage
Both games will be available via webcast at NCHC.tv., with Friday’s opener also broadcast live on Mido Sports Network. All UND men’s hockey games, home and away, can be heard on stations across the Fighting Hawks Radio Network as well as through the iHeart Radio app. Puck drop is set for 8:00 p.m. Central Time on Friday night and 6:00 p.m. Central Time on Saturday night.
Social Media
Keep up with the action live during all UND hockey games by following @UNDmhockey and @UNDInsider on Twitter. Fans can also read the action via Brad Schlossman’s live chat on the Grand Forks Herald website.
The Prediction
Despite the series split in Grand Forks in mid-November, I like North Dakota’s chances of emerging from the desert with two victories. UND has a tremendous amount of depth and an edge in skill along the blue line, and those are two qualities that show up particularly well on the road. It won’t be easy, but the Fighting Hawks will do just enough to earn all six league points. UND 4-2, 5-2.
As always, thank you for reading. I welcome your thoughts, comments, and suggestions.