(Photo: Nicole Hernandez/WCSN)
As the Arizona State Division 1 Club Hockey team’s fall semester drew to a successful end, several team members received a special recognition.
Sean Murphy, Michael Cummings, and goalie Jordan Gluck were selected as members of Team USA’s World University Games team, one of the highest honors available in the club hockey game.
“They should be very proud to represent their country,” ASU head coach Josh Brown said. “It’s an honor and our organization is very proud of them.”
The World University Games, which will be played in Almaty, Kazakhstan, pit top collegiate athletes from around the world against one another over several weeks in late January and early February of 2017. It will be the 9th consecutive Games the United States will send an ice hockey team, and the 2nd straight Games for Sean Murphy.
In 2015, Murphy also was selected for the national team, and registered 5 points in the 7 games he played. This year’s selection gives Murphy another chance to show off his abilities at one of collegiate hockey’s top levels.
The Cary, North Carolina, native is in his fourth year with ASU hockey, having scored 92 points in his ACHA career. Murphy was also a member of Arizona State’s NCAA Division 1 hockey team last year, where he appeared in 23 games.
Michael Cummings is another NCAA veteran, who has not skipped a beat since coming back to the ACHA team. After appearing in 12 NCAA games last season, Cummings is the ACHA team’s leading scorer this year scoring 14 goals to go along with 9 assists. Cummings’ aspirations for the national team though go back to his earliest days in Tempe.
“Once I found out about the Games my freshman year, I had that as one of my goals.” Cummings said. “It’s an honor to be picked for the team, but I wouldn’t have been selected if it weren’t for the position I was put in by Coach Brown, and being able to play with my two line mates [Wilson] Housley and [Austin] Ehrlich.”
The senior forward out of San Bernardino, California was an alternate pick for the 2015 team, but has beefed up his resume since then. In addition to last year’s NCAA experience, Cummings has 37 career ACHA goals with ASU. Cummings has also complied plenty of experience in junior hockey, spending time in the Tier 2 North American Hockey League with the Fairbanks Ice Dogs in 2011-12.
Jordan Gluck doesn’t have the NCAA experience of his fellow ASU Team USA members, but has been one of the best goalies in the ACHA since coming to Tempe. Gluck, one of only five sophomores on the US University Games teams, was named an ACHA Division 2 third team All-American last year, compiling a perfect 12-0 record. Gluck is in great form again this season, currently holding a 7-2 record, 2.09 goals against average, and a .929 save percentage. Gluck and fellow goalie Lucas Felbel have formed a formidable tandem in net this year, one of the main reasons the Sun Devils are sixth in the country in goals against at the halfway mark.
Murphy, Cummings, and Gluck will head to Boston later this month for a pre-tournament camp, before heading to Kazakhstan on January 26 of next year. Coach Brown will miss them with his ASU team, but knows their opportunity has been hard earned, saying “Their body of work speaks for itself, they have earned this opportunity through hard work on and off the ice.”
