When senior forward Tyler Busch was growing up, his dad built an ice rink in the backyard from scratch.
It actually wasn’t that hard. Busch’s father would place a tarp on the ground that was supported by four pieces of plywood around it to create a square. The tarp served as the base; the plywood serving as end boards.
Add some water and the natural below freezing temperatures of Alberta, Canada, and the homemade mini rink was complete.
“Throw a couple nets out there and it’s pretty easy,” Busch said.
Located on the Alberta-Saskatchewan border in Canada, Busch grew up in the small town of Lloydminster. Much like himself, Busch had friends with makeshift hockey rinks.
“Back home in Alberta, hockey is really the only thing everyone plays in the winter,” Busch said. “I was about four years old when I got on skates and I was about five when I started playing.”
Eventually Lloydminster started to build rinks around the town, and sure enough, Busch and his friends would meet up at one of the rinks to play after school.
Flash forward to 2019 and Busch, now 23, still goes to the rink, this time in Tempe.
“A lot of people from back home come here on vacation,” Busch said. “Obviously (Arizona) is a great place to live.”
After spending four years with the Spruce Grove Saints of the Alberta Junior Hockey League, Busch first committed to play college hockey at Ohio State, but eventually he decommitted from the Buckeyes and re-opened his recruitment.
That’s when he got the call from ASU men's hockey head coach Greg Powers.
“I was committed for a couple years, and I kind of saw myself not fitting in as well,” Busch said. “Powers contacted me right away and got me down here for a visit. I kind of fell in love with the place and what they were doing here. It was an easy decision for me.”
Also decommitting from a major program (Vermont) at around the same time was Brinson Pasichnuck. An Alberta native in his own right, Brinson, a senior defenseman, and his brother Steenn, a senior forward, had known Busch growing up. In fact, Brinson and Busch had played together on the Canada West U19 team.
“(Brinson and I) knew each other, we grew up about an hour and a half apart from each other, and I actually played a year with Steenn back in my hometown,” Busch said. “I knew them pretty well.”
Now co-captains, Busch and Brinson came to Tempe in 2016 knowing that building up the program from scratch was going to be a process.
Their freshman season in Tempe was ASU’s first as an NCAA Division 1 hockey program. Previously known as an American Collegiate Hockey Association powerhouse, the Sun Devils were about to tread in unprecedented waters. No Pac-12 or Southwest school in the U.S. had ever had a hockey program at that level.
“When I was making the decision to come here that was definitely a big thing,” Busch said. “Powers stressed that it’s all going to be worth it in the end when you leave here.
In Busch’s first two seasons with the program, ASU won a combined 18 games. In 2016-17 opponents outscored the Sun Devils 130-91 on the year, while the season after saw Powers’ team score less than two and a half goals a game.
But in 2018-19, everything clicked into place.
A 21-13-1 overall record led to the program's first-ever appearance in the NCAA Tournament. In three seasons, ASU had gone from an ACHA program to a national force in Division 1 hockey.
“To see the program grow and to be where it’s at, to start from the bottom and work all the way up," Busch said. "I think it’s really rewarding to look back and see all of the guys who put in work and put in a ton of hours here to make this thing go."
Busch added that this process was a test of mental strength that made the team better players and people.
“We still think we have a ways to go,” Powers said. “We’re not where we ultimately want to be yet.”
Now coming off of what was easily the greatest season in program history, Busch is one of only four true seniors on the roster. With star goalie Joey Daccord now in the AHL, it’s up to Busch’s vocal leadership to help steer the Sun Devils in the right direction.
“We have a strong leadership group and it’s not just me,” Busch said. “It’s Brinson (Pasichnuk), Jacob Wilson, Dominic Garcia and there’s a handful of other guys who do a good job of leading.”
For ASU, leadership is an obvious benefit, but having leaders who have gone through the pain of getting outclassed, outmatched and outmuscled for years before reaching the top is an invaluable asset to have as a program.
"We really pride ourselves on being one big family," Brinson said. "I think all of the upperclassmen do a pretty good job of welcoming in new guys into our program."
With the Pasichnuk brothers, Busch and forward Brett Gruber, ASU has four seniors who have literally fought for the program since day one — and in Brinson and Busch’s cases, left greater and more established programs to become Sun Devils.
“I think we have a really good culture here,” Busch said. “It starts with the guys we bring in. The guys we recruit are all guys who buy into culture and guys who want to be here.”
For Busch, it all started as a five-year-old, skating on a frozen, water-filled tarp and some plywood during the dead of winter. It may have been just a small ice rink, but it was built from scratch — exactly how Busch likes it.
Reach the reporter at kbriley@asu.edu and on Twitter @KokiRiley.
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