Sun Devils open conference play with a win
The last time Dave Hakstol was behind an NCHC bench, he led North Dakota to the third and final regular season title of his tenure en route to a Frozen Four appearance in 2015.
11 years later, he picked up right where he left off, guiding Arizona State to a hard-fought 3-2 road win over the St. Cloud State Huskies.
It was a tightly contested game throughout, with little margin for error for either side. The Sun Devils made quick work with captain Kyle Smolen opening the scoring on the power play for his 4th goal of the season and 30th of his career just over 6 minutes into the game. The Huskies didn't back down though, clawing back with two goals of their own in 3:11 to claim the 2-1 lead midway through the period. Ben Muthersbaugh would notch his 4th goal of the season in the closing minutes of the period, also on the power play, sending the game to the first intermission at a 2-2 tie.
From there, it became a battle of the former USHL goaltenders. Samuel Urban, finalist for the USHL's Goaltender of the Year honors in 2024-25, stopped all 17 shots he faced from the second period onward. The goaltender who beat him out that season was none other than tonight's opponent in Yan Shostak, who matched Urban nearly save for save, stopping 19 of 20 shots over the final 40 minutes.
The one crack in his armor came at the 3:45 mark of the third period when Jack Beck redirected a Rylan Brown shot to give the Sun Devils the 3-2 lead. Shostak would be pulled in the final two minutes in an attempt to send the game to overtime, but the Sun Devils hung tough and secured their 4th straight win to move to 5-2-0 on the season.
While Daniel Shlaine failed to extend his point streak beyond six games, the Sun Devils got multi-point efforts from Muthersbaugh, Smolen, and Jonas Woo. The emergence of newcomers this early in the season after so much turmoil in the leadup is highly encouraging, considering only three players on this season's roster were rostered the last time Arizona State traveled to St. Cloud in January of 2025 (Smolen, Hunter Mullett, and Chase Hamm).
Around the NCHC
Nine of the ten NCHC were in action on Friday night as the season gets in to full swing heading into November.
Minnesota-Duluth edged Colorado College in a 1-0 road win on Jayson Shaugabay's game-winning goal with less than 3 minutes to play in regulation.
Johnny Hicks made his return to the net and Kristian Epperson's third period goal proved to be the winner as Denver took down Omaha 2-1 from Magness Arena.
St. Thomas made their NCHC debut and Rico Blasi returned to Goggin Ice Center in Oxford for the first time since 2019, but the RedHawks had the last laugh in a 2-1 win on Doug Grimes' late power play goal.
Western Michigan completed the weekend sweep of Long Island University with a 7-4 win. The Broncos outscored the Sharks 17-6 on the weekend.
North Dakota was idle on Friday night, and will host Michigan State on Saturday night in the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame Game from the H-E-B Center in Austin, TX.
The series will wrap up on Saturday night with the Sun Devils looking for their second consecutive sweep. Puck drop will be at 4pm Arizona Time, streaming nationally on NCHC.tv (subscription required). Tyler Paley and Alex Coil will have the radio call on Fox Sports 910 AM Phoenix.
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