The ASU men's hockey team was ranked as the 10th-best team in the NCAA this morning in both the USA Today and USCHO's weekly top 20 hockey poll, the first top 10 ranking in program history.
After making the NCAA Tournament for the first time in program history last season, the Sun Devils came into the 2019-20 season with higher expectations than they had before.
After beginning the season with a tough series split against Mercyhurst and being on the receiving end of a series sweep against Minnesota State, ASU fell out of the rankings.
But the Sun Devils rebounded with a sweep against then-ranked No. 9 Quinnipiac — who ended ASU's tournament run in the first round last season in Pennsylvania — and was able to secure wins from Alaska Fairbanks, then-ranked No. 4 Denver, and Vermont to enter the winter break with a winning record.
The winter break provided the Sun Devils with more opportunities to rack up wins, as they had no bye weeks over the break. ASU would finish out the 2019 portion of the season with a 10-7-3 record.
In 2020, the Sun Devils have not taken their foot off the gas, losing just twice in the 12 games they've played since the start of the year, including a current five-game win streak.
ASU has consistently risen in the top 20 polls as well as the PairWise Rankings, led by junior forwards Johnny Walker and James Sanchez, senior defensemen Brinson Pasichnuk and sophomore defenseman Josh Maniscalco, and sophomore goaltender Evan DeBrouwer.
No. 10 ASU (20-9-3) will host Alaska Anchorage (4-19-5, 4-16-4 WCHA) this weekend at Oceanside Ice Arena in its last home series of the year and will travel to Wisconsin (10-17-1, 5-14-1-1 Big Ten) next weekend for the season finale.
Reach the reporter at aklatsky@asu.edu and follow @averyklatsky on Twitter.
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