(Photo: Gabrielle Mercer/WCSN)
Regardless of the team’s competent showing against No. 9 Notre Dame in South Bend over the week, head coach Greg Powers admits his team experienced some struggles when it came to adapting to new NCAA rules.
Between both games, the Sun Devils were called for 43 penalties.
“There’s a new standard of play in NCAA hockey that unfortunately we weren’t made aware of before we went out there, in their [the officials] defense,” Powers said. “So we kind of walked into the buzz saw and it was really nobody’s fault, we’re non-conference, so we don’t have a conference commissioner governing that process for us and educating us and our players on the new standards of play.”
In the team’s first season, Powers said that he and his staff made a point to meet with Big Ten Coordinator of Men’s Ice Hockey Officials Steve Piotrowski to discuss the various rule changes and expectations that come with playing in the NCAA.
This season, however, Powers admits that there was no meeting or initiative to check on rule changes for the team’s second year.
“They circulate it [rule changes] to essentially 59 Division I head coaches and they forgot one,” Powers said. “Now, on the flip side of that, you know, I have a responsibility to proactively investigate if there’s any major rule changes and that wasn’t done either, so I think it’s partially on me as well.”
Moving forward, Powers views this simply as one of the many difficulties that comes with starting a flagship NCAA program.
“There are going to be growing pains, we’re brand new, we’re the first Pac-12 school to ever have the sport and the Pac-12 has been very supportive of ice hockey at Arizona State,” Powers said. “As we continue to grow as a program, there’s going to be growing pains and this is one of them and it was one that came with a very hard lesson.”
In terms of personnel, the Sun Devils were without last season’s leading points scorer Jordan Masters for both games against Notre Dame and Powers has already ruled him out for this weekend’s return to Gila River Arena, where the team will take on Air Force.
Last season, Masters was one of 60 collegiate hockey players nominated for the Hobey Baker Award, an honor given to the top player in college hockey.
While it’s unclear what the situation regarding Masters has been to this point, it doesn’t look to be an injury. Still, Powers doesn’t plan on announcing anything until further into the season.
“We’re still determining how we are going to move forward with Jordan,” Powers said. “We’re going to keep anything that’s going on with him internal for now, but you can expect him not to be in the lineup against Air Force.”
