Worst Seasons in the Past 25 Years Part 6: Arizona State

Welcome to the Worst Season in the Past 25 Years, a series in which r/CollegeHockey reviews the worst season for all 60 Division I teams over the summer to alleviate the crushing boredom known as the off-season and take a horrific tour down memory lane.

If you are interested in writing an entry for your team, please let me know via PM. I’ll be posting entries on weekdays at approximately at 6 pm Eastern time and will be going in alphabetical order. If an entry is not posted at that time, assume that “real life” has gotten in the way and that I am not able to post. If I am aware in advance that I will not post at 6 pm on a particular day, I will announce it in prior posts as a heads up.

And now.../r/CollegeHockey presents the Arizona State Sun Devils! ASU has been a DI member since 2015. Before then, they were a successful team at the club level, participating in the ACHC national tournament 10 times and winning it in 2014. They announced their jump to NCAA Division 1 later that year. It was announced that the Sun Devils would play a hybrid ACHC/NCAA schedule for the 2015-16 season, play a full NCAA season as an independent for the 2016-17 season and join a conference in 2017.

That said, the only full NCAA season seems fair to point out in this series, in my opinion. Otherwise it would be the equivalent to taking a candy from a baby. That would be unfair to the Sun Devils...

2016-2017 Record: 10-3-19 (W-D-L); no conference record due to being independent.

Wins: Air Force, @New Hampshire, RPI, Colgate, @AIC, @UMass Amworst (x2), @Quinnipiac

Ties: Brown, @Ohio State, @Western Michigan

Losses: @Noter Dame (x2), Air Force, @Northeastern (x2), Harvard (x2), Michigan, @Boston College, @Penn State (x2), RPI, Colgate, St. Cloud St., @Denver (x2), @Ohio State, @Quinnipiac, @Western Michigan

Biggest Beatdown: PSU 8 - ASU 0

Head Coach: Greg Powers

In their first full season as an NCAA team, ASU seemed to pull many victories and play against many teams who would participate at the Ice Dance (including eventual champions Denver). Powers has been head coach since 2010; he was previously a goalkeeper from 1995 to 1999 and an assistant coach from 2008 prior to being promoted. Anthony Croston led the team with 10 goals while Robert Baillargeon and Dylan Hollman had 12 assists a piece. In goal, duties were nearly evenly split between Robert Levin (.898 save percentage, 3.32 GAA) and Joel Daccord (.892 save percentage, 4.03 GAA).

The Sun Devils faced Notre Dame to start their season where the Fighting Irish proceeded to pummel ASU by a combined scoreline of 13-4. A home series against Air Force followed, where ASU got their first win of the season. Two series against Boston teams in the form of Northeastern and Harvard rounded off October.

November started with a game against Michigan. A trip to the Eastern Seaboard followed, with a games against New Hampshire and Boston and then a series against Penn State. A split series against RPI concluded November.

December was occupied with eastern teams. A split series with Colgate and a productive trip to AIC and UMass Amherst lifted Sun Devil spirits headed into the holiday season. A wild 8-all shootout with Brown was a late Christmas gift. For New Year’s Eve, Arizona State faced off against St. Cloud (the only non-eastern team to play Arizona State in December), ending the calendar year with a loss in otherwise a great month.

The new year opened with an away series to eventual national champs Denver, followed by a trip to Ohio State where a tie was obtained. A series against DIII Southern New Hampshire provided some more practice. January ended with a trip to Quinnipiac, where the series was split. In February, ASU went to Western Michigan which ended in a loss and a tie. Two matches each with Simon Fraser and the US U18s finished the season for the Sun Devils.

In their first season, ASU did well and probably exceeded the expectations of some people. An arena seems to be in the works, as well as joining a conference. It looks like that ASU would be joining the WCHA, but nothing has been finalized. I hope that Arizona State improve and make a statement about the feasibility of hockey in the Southwest.

For Week 2 of this series, we will look at the worst seasons in recent memory for the following schools: Army West Point, Bemidji State, Bentley and Boston College. Once again, if you are interested in doing the entry for your favorite school, shoot me a PM. Your school, name, and date will be added at the end of each post to serve as a reminder. So far, the following people have inquired about a spot:

School	Username	Tentative Date
Brown	u/kdb77	6/21
Cornell	u/ABigRedWallaby	6/29
LSSU	u/binkelman	7/10
UML	u/LantisEscudo	7/13
Penn State	u/saucysalesman	8/8
RPI	u/Nicholas1227	8/16
Union	u/azureamor	8/22
Vermont	u/LocksTheFox	8/23

Finally, a shoutout to u/saucysalesman who inspired the idea of this series for doing one for football over at r/cfb. Additionally, thanks to r/CollegeBasketball for the idea of the sub-par MS Paint logos for each school.

Previous Entries in the Worst Seasons Series:

AHA	WCHA
Air Force	Alabama Huntsville
American International	Alaska Anchorage
Alaska Fairbanks