Hell Frozen Over 2.6

Join the voice of Sun Devil Hockey Tyler Paley and Sun Devil Hockey Head Coach Greg Powers as they recap the weekend series with Lindenwood, discuss ASU's tournament chances and preview the remainder of the season.

Episode Transcript

(00:01):
You're listening to Hell Frozen Over withSun Devil Head Hockey Coach Great Powers by
from Cold Beers and Cheeseburgers on FoxSports nine ten and the iHeartRadio Welcome to
the course light first period of HellFrozen Over now alongside Coach Powers, the
voice of Sun Devil Hockey Tyler Pley. Over the last few weeks, the

(00:23):
message surrounding Sun Devil Hockey has beenwe have a chance, a chance to
reach the goals that were set backin the summer, make the tournament hit
the twenty five win mark and setthe strongest possible foundation. In the final
year as an independent program. Thosegoals are still within reach tonight. Make
no mistake, the uphill battle onlygets steeper from here. But there's a

(00:44):
chance, and that's what this teamreminds itself of every day as we hit
the final month of the regular season. Hi, everybody, welcome into Season
two, episode nine of Hell FrozenOver Live tonight from Cold Beers and Cheeseburgers
in Arcadia for the next hour hereon Fox Sports nine and streaming on the
iHeartRadio app. I'm Tyler Palley,the radio play by play broadcaster of Sun
Devil Hockey. Happy to have youalong as we discussed the team's latest news

(01:07):
and notes and get you all setfor another week of college hockey. Joining
me tonight and every show this year, Arizona State head coach Greg Powers and
my broadcast partner Alex Coyle, gentlemen, always good to see you. How's
the weeping going, sir. It'sbeen going good. It's two couple good
days of practice. Guys are rampedup and excited for a really big weekend
against a very good team, andthey're ready to go. We have been

(01:32):
looking forward to this series for thebetter part of this season, so we're
gonna preview that tonight. We gota whole lot to talk about. I
did want to ask, though,because I was thinking about this as I
was, you know, writing theshow and doing research for it this weekend,
Like has it flown by or isit just me? I mean,
Alex and I were just talking lastweekend about the fact that that sixteen nothing
win over the kiddies felt like itwas like two hours ago. Hey,

(01:53):
I agree, I was just talkingto somebody about that. I think yesterday.
How fast? No, it wasthis morning, you know, Masters
Money came and visited us. Heyeah, he's doing great. He was
here during the All Star break.He goes back tomorrow, but he came
in and hung out for a littlebit and I just told him, so,
it's been a fun season, andit's gone quickly because it's been just
such a great group of kids,you know, and there's so much fun

(02:15):
to be around, and winning obviouslycures a lot. You know, in
eighteen six and six, you're havingfun coming to the rink every day.
It has gone by quickly, andwe're going to enjoy the last eight games
we have together. Wouldn't it beso cool if he were on this team.
I mean, you can say thatabout so many alumps. But yeah,
we thought maybe he was coming back. I mean, he didn't make
his final decision until late July,and then there was a there was a

(02:38):
real chance he was going to comeback. He said today, he's he's
glad he went. He's starting todo better and and and really carve out
a role there and and do well. So I'm glad that he went.
It's worked out. But you know, Donor is an AHA All Star and
he was this close to coming back, so we we really were that close
to getting both of them back andif they were on this team, yeah,

(03:00):
it'd be special. It's special anyway, but it would be that much
more special. Yeah, hindsight twentytwenty. All right, let's uh,
let's jump into the Lindenwood series thatwe just wrapped up. We'll start with
Game one, a frustrating result allthings considered. Arizona State never led in
that game, but the Devils didcome back to tie it every time the
Lions took the lead. Final decisionwas a four to four draw. I

(03:21):
know you were unhappy at the momentbecause statistically your team dominated, they played
winning hockey without getting the win.I'd still say we were better Friday than
Saturday. Yeah, we were muchmore control, we were much more crisp,
We played faster, we reloaded abovetalks and transition quickly. We just
we played a better game, youknow, we just it just didn't go

(03:44):
away, and you know, itis what it is. But yeah,
it was. It was a tiethat I was personally, very very unhappy
about. What was the difference betweenthe two games over the course of the
weekend simply just goaltending in the savesthat you got. It was there more
than just that. I mean thatwas a difference. I think you can
say that, you know, Imean, you know, Saturday, Giving
made a couple of really big savesearly and and and would let our guys

(04:09):
settle in and really get into agroove, and and we pulled away and
and Friday, I think it wasa lot and their goalie was really good,
yeah, and and kept them init. And and to their credit,
they were opportunistic and we would tieit up boom boom boom, and
then they would find a way toget a lead. So again, the
one thing I loved about Friday wasjust the resiliency. Our guys just didn't

(04:30):
go away. They kept going andgoing and going. And then obviously Oh
had a big goal for us totie it up, and and uh and
we thought we thought we were gonnaget it, you know, I mean,
we had a chance. Right afterhe tied it. I think it
was needs on a rebound that thekid just made a circus saves. So
it's one of those games, youknow. We we we we felt like
we were obviously the better team anddeserved to get a sweep. But it
is what it is. Well withhow Saturday ended, right with the you

(04:54):
know, the penalty minutes, thefighting on the ice, everything does that
kind of ramp up the tensity andgive you some more the guys some more
energy going into the rest of thiseighteen. I don't think it can hurt.
I think I think that it was. It was indicative of and letting
you know, it was an indicationto let people know how tight this group

(05:16):
is, right and how much theycare about each other and have each other's
backs. And and I don't thinklast year's team he would have saw that.
I just don't think, you know, not the bad mouth last year's
team, But it's just a tightergroup this year. They didn't like the
tomahawk chop on the bench, theydidn't like to hit on Timmy, and
they decided to you know, respond. Yeah. Kopp said today that he

(05:40):
really really enjoyed it. He washe's very happy to have something like that
to be involved. Shocker still stillhockey right involved how he likes to talk.
He knows that. I do wantto just kind of put a bow
on that. I mean, you'vebeen around this game a long time.
I know you've seen some penalty riddengames in a lot of different ways.
You told reporters and you just toldus that your guys were just really defending

(06:03):
themselves. Yet it felt to melike Asu kind of got the brunt of
the calls down the stretch. Iknow it didn't matter in the end,
but did you feel that way too? Yeah? I could. I couldn't
believe we were down. I mean, I saw punches from the other side.
I didn't see any from our side. But you know, it's like,
it is what it is like.I don't know how we came out

(06:24):
of that on the short end,but we did, you know, to
you know, the ref's defense.They didn't see the kid, you know,
Tomahawk chop one of our guys inthe head on the bench, you
know, And unfortunately we wanted tochallenge it, and the refs were encouraging
us to challenge it, but wedidn't have the angle. The camera wasn't
there, so we had we were. Melon was looking for it vigorously before

(06:45):
they dropped the pucket. He couldn'tfind it, all right, I want
to I want to talk big picturehere for a moment, if you don't
mind. Sun Devils are currently tiedfor nineteenth and the pair wise with eight
games left to play, four ofwhich are at home four on the road.
You told us last weekend you weretargeting somewhere in that thirteen to fifteen
range to have a chance at abid. Explain to us kind of your

(07:09):
team's chances at this point. Well, for about a few hours last night,
we were seventeen after the Northeastern Harvardgame. Harvard would have won that
in regulation, we would have stayedat seventeen and had to lead late.
So it's that close, right,And the range from really right now,

(07:30):
sixteen to twenty is razor thin.From twelve to fifteen is razor thin.
So you know, look, wehave to kind of scoreboard watch a little
bit, but we don't want toget too caught up, and we're focused
on trying to just get a couplewins this weekend and continue to give ourselves
a chance to have some hope toget in. Yeah, yeah, of

(07:51):
course, you know that kind ofstuff will take care of itself. But
I know another goal that you havethat you really, really really want to
reach is that twenty five. Howmuch would that mean to your program.
I think it would be incredible ifwe could get, you know, twenty
five wins. That's going seven toone. It's gonna be hard to do,
but we can do it. Ithink, you know, internally,

(08:11):
one of our goals is to makesure that we make this our best win
total in program history, and thatwould be twenty three, so, you
know, five more to get there, and I know this group's capable and
expects to get there. That's reallycool. Yeah, I think we're right
on kind of the doorstep of that. I want to ask you about something,
and we've been meaning to talk aboutthis for a few weeks now,

(08:33):
but we've talked about ASU's path toa regional, but more broadly, for
a moment, let's talk about regionalsthemselves. Brad Schlossman of the Grand Forks
Herald, he covers North Dakota andthe NCCHC red a great story a few
weeks ago about the push to moveregionals to campus sites instead of four predetermined
locations. There seems to be interestfrom others kind of around the sport.

(08:56):
He cited Denver's David carl and seHC commissioner Heather Wiiams, ESPN broadcaster John
Butchi Gross and many more. Whatare your thoughts on moving regionals on campus?
I'm all for it. I hateI hate the fact that that these
kids in any program have to goto a regional and play in a in
a building a fourth of the wayfull, you know, in the biggest

(09:18):
games of their season. So youcan ask any competitive player if if they
could, you know, go toa regional in Manchester, New Hampshire and
play in front of a thousand people, or you know, as a for
seed, go to a SU andplay at molt Arena and play as U
in front of five thousand crazy fans. Or North Dakota and Grand Forks in

(09:41):
front of their fans. Whatever itmay be. Yost and Michigan, you're
gonna You're gonna take the campus sites. It's it's good for the growth of
college hockey. These games are onESPN, they're on national TV. We're
trying to grow the popularity of oursport. It's an unbelievable sport. As
we have seen here locally, collegehockey has taken off like like like wildfire.

(10:01):
People love the atmosphere, they lovethe fire, the intensity, the
passion that these kids play with.And and this is a prime example of
how popular college hockey could be ifit was sold the right way. And
it's not sold the right way.The regional sites suck that simple, We've
been to them. They're not they'rethe the intensity levels down. It's just

(10:24):
not a great experience, and theyneed to move to campus. I'm a
big advocate of that, and it'sthe best thing for the kids, and
it should be all about the playerexperience and it'd be better for him.
How does something like that get changed? Is that something that happens to coaches
meetings? Is clearly after the NAcoaches meetings in and on coaches calls,
it's it's it's a common topic andit's well supported amongst the coaches. You

(10:48):
know, the the old guard hastheir reasons for one to keep it the
way it is. But at theend of the day, everything's going the
way of the of the players.Do an athlete experience and and I hope
that it happens. I think itwill. You would much rather so,
let's say you and and North Dakotaend up in the same regional one year,
you would rather go to a placelike Grand Forks and play a team

(11:11):
like North Dakota as opposed to aneutral site. Yeah, yeah, absolutely,
it would be. It would beso much more fun unless that neutral
site's team O Bareen in Vegas andwe'll take it care business. Yeah,
exactly, all right. I wantto get back to this season in particular,
as you reflect on your schedule sofar, do you feel like you
struck a good balance between kind ofthose top tier opponents and others. Do

(11:33):
you think you spread them out wellenough between the first and second halves of
the season. Well, yeah,I mean as an independent you're forced the
last month of the season to onlyplay the Independence. All the conferences they
don't have conference weekends off, sothere's no openings. Right in the past,
you know, we've gone to likeWisconsin and Minnesota at the very end
of the year when the Big Tenhas their bye week off. But really,

(11:54):
other than that, nobody else hasopenings. And so that's why you
see as college he's grown, lindenWood's out of the sport, l i
U's ated it, the Alaskas havecome back. You know who am I
missing? August stone Hill, StoneHill, So you see all these independence
teams with a chance to play eachother. When we went to the tournament
and played Quinnipiac, we had athirty eight day break. That's crazy.

(12:18):
We didn't play hockey for thirty eightdays because we couldn't get games where these
teams are grinding it out to goingthrough league playoffs. Now at least the
independence can play up until when theother teams play. You know, if
we get in, we're gonna havea week off while the other teams are
in their conference championships, which isgreat. You want one week off,
but really no more than that becauseRUSS starts to come into play and one

(12:39):
week's perfect. So so hopefully weget in here in our last year as
an independent and take advantage of it. Yeah. Another part of that schedule
that we've spoken about before is theneed to play through breaks, as you
just said, when other conferences haveavailabilities. You guys finally were able to
have a weekend off a couple ofweekends ago. How different was your team
coming out of that? Could yousend some energy with them? I thought

(13:01):
we had great jump and energy,and you know, like I said,
Lennon would popped a couple early,and we responded right away both times,
and we're all over. You know, it felt like it was a it
was a six to nothing game,not a four to four game. But
I liked our energy, I likedour our focus and execution was really good.

(13:22):
It's just again we ended up witha tie. So this weekend,
you know, we were in fora war. These guys are very good
team. They played incredibly hard andour guys are going to have to empty
the tanks if we're going to havesuccess, and they connected the tanks.
Knowing that we have another off weekafter the series last one before we had
to a quick break. I dowant to ask about the guest that we

(13:43):
have coming up in the second period, forward Benji Eckerley to us. I
mean, it seems like he's reallydeveloped as a player that you just won
on your hockey team over the timethat he's been a Sun Devil. What
do you make of his season sofar and really his progression at ASU.
Yeah, he's this year he hasturned into the player that we always had

(14:03):
hoped that he would be and knewhe could be. He's the player that
did epitomize epitomizes what you win with, you know, and and he plays
two hundred feet. He has speed, tenacity, he loves going into the
corners and winning punk battles, goesharder than net, kills penalties, wins
face offs, he does everything.So we're really proud of him. He

(14:26):
is a great Sun Devil of ofthe highest character you could ever want out
of a player. He's a greatstudent, he's unbelievable in the locker rooms.
He's one of the favorite guys onthe team. So we're lucky to
have him. And he's just ahell of a kid and help the player.
Yeah, we're really excited to talkto him. All right. Coach,
back at it for one of thebiggest series of the season this weekend
at home. Just four more homegames to go this year. Grab your

(14:48):
tickets if you haven't already. Coachwill be back to preview the Alaska Fairbanks
n Nooks in the third period.Up next, Sun Devil forward Benji Eckerley
joins Hel frozen over for the veryfirst time to talk about this season and
reflect back on his time as aSun Devil. Our conversation right after this
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at anytime. You're listening to HellFrozen Over with Sun Devil head hockey coach
Greg Powers. Let's start the busyHard Seltzer second period. I'm Fox Sports

(18:15):
nine ten and the iHeartRadio WAPP.Thanks for sticking with us for the second
period. Health Frozen Over. It'sour hour long show talking all things Sun
Devil Hockey. We're live every otherTuesday this season from Cold Beers and Cheeseburgers
in the Arcadia location right your fortiethStreet end Indian School. If you're not
here tonight, we do have anothershow coming up Tuesday, February twentieth,

(18:36):
six pm. We hope you come, grab some delicious food and talk some
college hockey with us. Well.The future is bright for this Sun Devil
squad, and a big reason whyis the foundation they've come to know a
big part of that foundation is dueto senior forward Benji Eckerley. He's a
true Swiss army knife who's been throughit all the Ocean side days, the
COVID year, and of course lastseason when injuries were the name of the

(18:57):
game. Now he and his teammateare competing for a tournament spot and we're
gonna chat with him about all ofthat. Benji joins us live now on
Hell Frozen Over. Thank you somuch for being here. Glad we finally
are able to get you on.Appreciate it. Yeah, absolutely, thanks
for having me. Of course.All right, let's let's start with just
kind of a general vibe check here, coming off that linden Wood series,

(19:18):
disappointing perhaps on Friday, invigorating onSaturday for a lot of reasons. What's
your locker room feeling right and thatwe're like right now and how are the
guys feeling. I'd say the vibeis pretty optimistic, like everyone's still feeling
good about the season and the outcomesthat we can have. It's you're right,
it was disappointing on Friday, butwe played really well, so it
was like too mad a result andthen to bounce back and like get the

(19:41):
big win on Saturday. It washuge. So when you guys go through
something like the end of Saturday's game, how intense that was. And I
kind of feel like it carried overinto practice a little bit with how you
know, quick the pace was anintensity that was there today. How much
does that fire you guys up?And you know, belief, have more
belief in one another there, that'sgood. It's like a bonding experience.

(20:03):
Yeah, everyone just you know,proves that we have each other's back and
to mix it up physically a littlebit as fun. So yeah, everyone
loved it. But I was justwaiting for powers to like wave Alex and
me down from the booth and belike I got no one else man,
Like you gotta come down and likesuit up real quick just to finish out
this game. All right, Youguys are still in the hunt, right,
Like obviously the climb only gets steeperfrom here. Eight games to go.

(20:27):
Are you and your teammates kind oflike keeping yourselves aware of the things
that need to happen or are youreally just focusing on what's in your control.
I know a lot of guys definitelypay attention to it, But I'd
say the majority of our team isfocused on ourselves, Like, as long
as we do what we have todo, we give ourselves a shot and
it kind of doesn't matter what happensthe outside. So the uncontrollers are the

(20:48):
uncontrollables, and we gotta like dieout in an our end more than anything
else. What kind of hockey isthat? What does it look like when
you guys take care of your business. Well, we stick to our identity,
so we play hard, we playfast, and then we'd play structured
and like solid all around, sothere's not a lot of like mistakes.
There's nobody just wheeling off and doingtheir own things. It's really like comprehensive

(21:10):
and thorough from top to bottom.So it just seems like, you know,
we were talking toward the middle ofthe season, I guess Alex and
I talked a lot about you know, last season it felt like you had
to play kind of a perfect gameto get a win, right, And
for I don't know, three quartersof this season, maybe two thirds,
it didn't feel like that, right, Like perhaps there were some games stolen

(21:33):
by one of your goaltender. Perhapsyou know, there were some games where
you made too many mistakes and youstill came out on the winning end.
Recently, there's there's been kind ofa you know, the up and down
of any college hockey season. Butoverall, when you look at this season
and thirty games under your belt,do you feel like, hey, you
know what, like we've kind oflike gotten over that hump and we are
now a legitimate powerhouse hockey team thatcan compete with just about any war.

(21:57):
Yeah. I think in a lotof ways that's Truely, we do feel
that way. I think, likeyou said, the trials of the first
half of the year, where wedon't play that well and still come out
with a winner of super like confidencebreak it definitely like gets it going and
gives us some faith that you canbe like this super super high level team.
The danger of thinking that, though, is that you think you've arrived.

(22:18):
You know, that's fair there,so like we try not to like
get our heads too high or likewe're this or this or this we're better
than everybody else. It's like westill got to put in all the work
because that's how we got here inthe first place. Yeah. No,
it's a really good point. Iwant to ask about you individually this season
has it's turning out to be yourbest collegiate year. Statistically, you got
four goals, you got twelve assists, that's sixteen points total, that's fifth

(22:40):
on the team. What's been workingfor you? I mean, is it
experience, is it your line mates, is it something else? Is it
all of the above. Yeah,I think it's definitely both those things.
I think now there's like no reasonnot to be confident. You know,
you've seen everything, You've been everywhere, so to be confident is huge.
And then also playing with my lineYeah, playing with O'Reilly and and smallly
like the whole basically the whole yearslike been awesome. Like we definitely click

(23:03):
really well, and I kind ofknow where each other are going to be.
We all play a similar style,so that's good and the Honesotly,
the biggest thing is health. LikeI've struggled with like injuries and stuff last
couple years, so that the confidenceof being just straight up healthy brings me
was like also massive, Yeah,okay, I can I've gotten that answer
a couple of times from a lotof guys about how much more confident they
are this year, And you mentionedplaying with that line. I think,

(23:26):
going back to what you said earlierabout the identity and what that looks like
in terms of the structure and doingwhat you need to do, I think
your line has has pretty much beenthe group that has done that the most
of this season, at least consistently. Where where did that chemistry come?
But with those three guys, Uh, it's odd. It's hard to say,
like where chemistry comes from? Youthough, but I think me and

(23:47):
Oh have been here long enough toknow, like yep, and it's our
senior year, so it's like wegot to get down in business now,
like we got to do what needsto be done. So on that front,
like we were definitely like tied atthe hip sort of from the beginning
of the year and all that samepage, and then Smolly came into a
freshman and we didn't know what kindof impact he was gonna have or like
exactly what kind of player he was. But the fact that he's like designed

(24:08):
to play that kind of a roleand like that's all he wants to do,
like that it's in and of itself, is like awesome. You can
trust the guy like that, likeright away, like you know, he's
never not gonna take a stride offor you know, cheatingney corners or anything.
But yeah, so all that kindof stuff altogether, it's super fun
watching all three of you play together, I'll be honest, just because like
you all, you all like meshso well together and yet your three completely

(24:30):
different players, like the cliche oftwo hundred foot player, Like, yeah,
all three of them, Like that'sa two hundred foot line from what
we've seen this year, So sixhundred feet based on my maath something like
that. That's too much for me. I do want to throw one more
stat at you and kind of getyour opinion on what to make of this.
One more that jumps out at meis your plus mind is rating.
You have a plus eight that's goodfor fourth on the team. You had

(24:52):
a plus four last year at theend of the season, so so good
things obviously continue to happen when you'reon the ice. What do you view
your role as and what do youmake of of kind of that plus eight
rating and and you know being inthe top four in your team. Well,
plus minus is a tricky stat becauseit's really it tells you somethings.
Yeah, but it also is likea lot of luck. Like sometimes you
can have unbelievable shift and you kindof cause the momentum to have the goal

(25:15):
happen and you change, yeah,and the oppostion happens to where you just
hop right on the ice and wescore. It's like, well brilliantly yeah,
but but yeah, it is coolto if it reflects like your two
hundred foot ness or whatever. It'slike it's something that you want to take
some pride, and I think itspeaks to the fact that you know,

(25:36):
like me and like our whole linewho's been playing together the whole year,
like takes a lot of pride inthat, and it's something that how we've
wanted us to do, Like hemade that clear from the beginning, is
like you guys, we want youguys to be the line that we can
put out there at the end ofthe game and put out there like throughout
the whole game and not have toworry about Like you guys are going to
take care of your business, Andso far we've lived up to that for
the most part, without a doubt, Without a doubt. Yeah, of

(25:56):
course during your time here, you'veshown grit, But where where in your
hockey career did you get that fromgrowing up? Was it all the way
back to when you first started playinghockey? When did you start being the
gritty, full everything hockey player.Honestly, it's I've never been anything but
that only has never been like apure skill guy or anything really but that,
Yeah, I think it was.Uh, I grew up like idolizing

(26:18):
like Steve Eiserman, Okay, hiswhole thing that was like he was the
skill guy. He was all thisand that, and then they didn't start
winning until he like got down tothe nitty gritty of things. So I
always really like that. And thenyeah, it was always like a smaller
kid growing up, So like ifI was gonna come out with the puck
and like make myself useful, Ihad to like really try hard. And
so yeah, it'd helped, youknow, instill that a little bit.

(26:40):
That's awesome. I want to askyou about your your kind of journey over
the course of your time here inTempe. I mentioned a few minutes ago
about your your first three years,right, you had the COVID year you
experienced ocean side for for all thatthat was worth, last season obviously being
a little disappointing, walk us throughhow you kind of look back on your

(27:00):
time here and and make sense ofyour journey in Tempe over the last few
years. Man, it's been alot. I mean, you mentioned the
COVID year. That was obviously acomplete anomaly sort of a thing, but
it was like something that going throughit, especially with all those guys and
like with the cop and oh,like the guys that are still here today,
was like a hardship, like abattle. It was cool to build

(27:22):
some characters through that. And thenplaying an ocean Side was obviously a different
college experience. So it's like everyyear's kind of got its things. It's
yeah, it was COVID, andthen it was ocean Side. The last
rideed ocean Side, like this wholething, and then which was awesome and
really exciting to be a part of, and then the first year at Mulla,
which was actually unbelievable as well,and then coming to this year,
it's almost like it's almost like asettling in, Like there's no special event,

(27:48):
there's no like craziness about it.It's like we can kind of get
comfortable in it, which is reallynice. But to have like a special
year kind of through all all threefirst years is Yeah, it's really cool.
That's good. No shortage on excitement. How does a guy from Northville,
Michigan end up in Tempe? Whyerswant to say, Well, it's
a funny story kind of because Iwas playing hockey in uh Flak junior hockey

(28:10):
in Nebraska and I flew out inJanuary and like a blizzard basically and landed
a year and it was sixty fiveand sunny, and it was instantly like,
yeah, I stolen away by Itwas like this is incredible to me
too. And then throughout my visitand everything, uh you know, like
Coach Powers and the whole staff likereally impressed me in the whole deal and
the rise was really cool. Solike they talked about the eating tradition,

(28:30):
but thing and that's what really soldme was like the opportunity to to pave
your not only your own way,but the way for like a whole program
of kids and like set the tonethat was like something I really couldn't turn
down. Yeah. I remember makinglike a pros and cons chart with like
one of my friends after getting likegetting the offer and like knowing that I
could come here and there wasn't asingle thing on the cons list. Besides,
we could use a better rink,but like, yeah, that was

(28:52):
fair. I couldn't really find areason not to. Yeah, we only
got like a minute left here.But I do want to ask about you
being a student at Barrett the HonorsCollege, right, I hear you're kind
of a walking encyclopedia of random facts? Is that a fair assessment of who
you are? Like the reputation ofrandom facts is ye? Like yeah,

(29:14):
Like I feel like I've heard thatfrom multiple people now, so now I'm
just gonna be looking at you forthose random facts. Have academics always been
important to you, like tell us, tell us about your studies and why
you take them so seriously? Yes, Well, it's funny because in high
school, like I was able todo all this stuff and it felt like
I was a pretty smart kid,but I did not have the drive to
do it at all. Okay,yep. And then by the end of

(29:34):
I didn't like didn't hit me untilthe end of my high school career,
and I was like Jesus, likewhat did I do? Like I butchered
this whole thing and still graduated,still graduated, but barely, and then
was able to come here and itwas just like we're not doing that again,
Like that's not happening again. Andmy parents made that pretty clear.
So that's good though, that's good, all right. I last one before

(29:56):
we let you go. What willit take down these final eight games for
this team to stay in the hunt, to continue to have a chance and
really just keep their eye on theprize and you guys, you know,
do what you can and what youcan control to go make the tournament come
March. I think, I mean, I'm gonna throw like a cliche at

(30:18):
you, but it's taking it oneday at a time, and not even
not one game at a time,but like, legit, one day.
Yeah. You have to focus onthe practice at hand, the workout at
hand, whatever it may be,and you just can't look at like you
can look at the standings, butyou can't focus on them. You just
got to focus on what we haveto do in the task at hand and
hope for the best. You know, yeah, we are hoping for the
best eight games to go. Youcan only control what you can control,

(30:41):
all right. He's a team playerthrough and through, willing to do anything
to help the Sun Devils win onthe score sheet, in the locker room
or the classroom. Always a pleasureto talk to a true winner. Benji,
you appreciate your time. Good luckthe rest of the way. We'll
talk to you soon, sir.Yeah, thank you guys for having me,
all right, Benji. When wereturn to Hell Frozen Over on this
Tuesday night, Coach Powers is backto talk about his team's next opponent in
their second to last home series ofthe season and give us an updated injury

(31:06):
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(34:22):
for the third period. You're listeningto Hell Frozen Over live tonight on the
Mountain America Credit Union Sun Devil RadioNetwork from Cold Beers and Cheeseburgers. Good
time to remind you to mark yourcalendars. Our next show is Tuesday,
February twentieth at six pm. Youcan come grab a burger and hang out
with Coach Powers at our Sun DevilHockey Guests Coaches back with us now,

(34:42):
sir, before we dive back intoHockey super Bowls this weekend, forty nine
Ers and Chiefs. Give me aprediction. I believe that Brock Purdy is
going to get it done. Yeah. I think the forty nine Ers are
going to win. This should bea good game, you know. I
think I was with the rest ofAmerica cheering for Detroit. Detroit, yeah
too, I didn't didn't go theirway. Yeah, it was cool to

(35:05):
see Brandon Ayuka, former Sun Devilas well. Make it one more prediction
for you and and I truly Imean this with no disrespect. Does Stonehill
win a game this year? Man? I hope so, you know,
I hope. So those kids,they they've been grinding it out. And
Dana's dad's a coach there, asyou guys know, and and we're all
cheering for him to get one.And I think that would be a great
moment for that program. I hopethey get one. Yeah, all right,

(35:28):
let's jump back into your team.Now, let's get an injury report
if you don't mind. Tyler Gratton, what's his status? And then ty
Jackson? Is he still on trackto play this weekend? Gratz is is
feeling way better. We're keeping itoff his his we're keeping them off skates
and so Thursday and and letting himheal up as the best we can.

(35:49):
He you know, he's such agood teammate and great kid and tough kid.
So he gave it a go Friday. He really wasn't wasn't good enough
to go, and you know,he had a few shifts, he was
on the power play a couple oftimes and just just couldn't do it,
you know, so we kept himout Saturday. I anticipate he's probably going
to be in. We won't knowfor sure, probably until Friday. Ty

(36:13):
Jackson's cleared, he'll he will seehim play Friday. What will he bring
Ty when he comes back? Offensivelyand just the whole thing. I guess,
Well, I mean, you get, I mean, he was our
first line center before he got hurt, right, and you get you get
a first line center back, akid that's really good on the power play,
cerebral, makes plays, can fly, He looks great in practice.

(36:37):
I was honestly really disappointed that hedidn't get cleared last week. It was
just kind of a thing that theywanted to give him about more another week.
He was ready, he wanted toplay. We thought he was going
to be able to play. Wecould have really used him. But he's
ready. He's ready to go,and we got half the half of the
twins back and that's better than none. Is he kind of chomping at the

(36:58):
bit to get back out. Yeah, I mean he's watched all you know.
I mean, we haven't had thesekids for two and a half months,
you know, and they were theywere playing so well. They were
playing the best hockey of their career. And they weren't just playing well,
they were clutched, they were doingall the things that in the big moments.
I mean the game Dylan Jackson hadagainst Providence in Denver, you know,

(37:20):
and and and ties his catalyst,it was it was special to see.
And I mean Dylan Jackson, ifhe was healthy all year, I
guarantee you right now would have atleast twenty goals. What I tell you,
he would have. My prese theyknew it. Yeah. So the
best news about those two is they'reboth going to be back next year for
their fifth year. And we're excitedat having back and you get that experience,

(37:43):
and you know, you have,you know, two bona fide,
high end, top six guys incollege hockey to pensyl In, it's it's
a big plus for us. Mygoal next year is to convince them to
come on the show. I knowthey're not big, they're not big media
guys, so I get it.But next year it's the year I know
A guy that can make that happen. All right, good, I love
that. We'll have to consult withhim. Look, I know you take

(38:04):
things one game at a time.You don't want to get too ahead of
yourself, right, But it feelslike Gibson Homer has earned every start he's
gotten up to this point and thensome. I mean, you said he
would start this coming Friday against Fairbanks? Is that still the plan? And
will we see him a lot moredown the stretch? You know, it's
like he said, I can't answerhow much we're gonna see who and when's
gonna win? They're gonna be in. All I know is is Gibby has

(38:25):
earned a Friday night start in abig game. You know, he's earned
it. He's done everything we've askedhim to do, really now for two
years. You know, he redshirted last year. He had the foresight
to want a red shirt, sohe is he is trecked it technically a
red shirt freshman. He's been great. You know. You know why he's
good is he just battles. Heworks so hard every day in practice,

(38:49):
every day he does extra work.He's the first one on, the last
one off. He always wants moreand you see that translated into his game
in the moment. Now, whenyou're that big and you're that athletic and
you compete that hard, you're you'reyou're gonna be a really good goalie.
And and that's exactly what he is. Coach Board just put it today that
he has the ability to be ready, to be ready and he's always locked

(39:13):
in. Is that something that hehas always had his entire time here or
is that something that you guys workedwith? Yeah? I think so.
I think I think people you youwould have seen him last year, you
know, and if he if hedidn't red shirt, he would have gotten
some time. But uh, youknow, he's I think, what is
this his ninth start? It is? It sounds right? Yeah, eight,
it'll be his eight start. Soyou know, how the rest of

(39:36):
the eight games go, we'll see, you know. We we we love
TJ. And he's been great forus, and he's been in a little
bit of a rut and and we'llget him out of it and he'll be
back. But it's it's the luxuryyou have. You have to have two
good goalies if you want to bea good team at this level, and
we have two really really good goalies. And speaking of the third, Chase
Ham got a chance to play onSaturday again. I know we talked about

(40:00):
it in our exclusive interview post game, but you know, garbage time.
But but hey, he made whatat least one save, may have may
have made a couple and just toget like I think it was a minute
forty five on the clock. Howspecial was that for him and how cool
was it for you to be ableto let him have that experience. Well,
look, and there's only one netin hockey right for a goalie,

(40:20):
and third stringers really at any levelhardly ever play, if ever. So
Chase, Chase is a kid that'sreally come in and and halfway through the
year and and deered himself to everybodyin our program. He's a great kid,
he's a great teammate. He worksreally hard every day and you know,
the bottom line, I just didn'tknow if there'd be another opportunity to

(40:42):
do that. Now. So assoon as Gibby, you know, the
shutout was was was taken away andand they allowed that goal, which I
still don't understand understood, but uh, it was a no brainer. You
know, had had had Gibby,you know, had the goose gup.
I would have left him in,but I was glad it happened, and
it happened for a reason, andthe guys were excited for him, and
it was a good moment. Yeah, really cool. After tonight's show,

(41:07):
the next one will be in themiddle of yet another week off. Do
you feel like that weekend is welltimed considering you just had a weekend off
at the end of January. Yeah, these these guys, you know,
it allows them to focus on onFairbanks and only Fairbanks. You know,
four games in a row, youknow, and and you know, to
have a week off rest, recover. Who knows what's gonna happen this weekend

(41:28):
as far as knicks and injuries orwhatever. It gives us that time to
buffer before we take a really long, tough road trip up and a really
tough place to play a good environment. I mean, it takes what three
and a half hours to fly intoSeattle, then another four and a half
hours from Seattle to get to Fairbanks. It's not a fun trip. Yeah,

(41:49):
he's like making the pitch for meto cancel my flight. Yeah.
Yeah, it's it's, it's andit and then when you get there,
it's this time of year. It'sit's it's it's balmy. Yeah yeah,
I Alex told me a high ofnegative thirty three or something like that.
That's what it was on Saturday.That's cool. Yeah, it's gonna be
interesting leading up to an opponent likethis. And we mentioned a couple of
times how off weeks can help out, but how important is an intense week

(42:14):
of practice to have guys ready tobe intense from puck drop on on Friday
night. We're gonna have to beintense every day, you know. I
mean you got to pick your spots. You know, you can't rule with
the iron fist every single day,you know. But but these are these
are huge games against a really goodteam that that you know, their identity
is how hard they play. Youknow, they don't have a ton of

(42:35):
high end skill. They got somereally nice skill, but they're a team
that brings it every night, everynight. Eric Larkin does a great job.
He's a really good coach, he'sa great guy, and what he's
done with that program is really impressive. He's got him in the mix every
year now, and it's because theyjust take his identity. He coaches with
an identity and that team plays withit and they play hard. So if

(42:58):
our guys don't want to play hard, they stand no chance. We won't
beat this team if we play reallyhard and empty the tanks. With a
week off ahead of us, Ilike our chances. So the Nanooks come
to town this weekend, then wehave that week off, then we all
head up to Fairbanks the following week. You alluded to it, but they're
really I mean, they're in thehunt still. It may still, you
know, if it's hard for youguys, it's gonna be even harder for

(43:20):
them, obviously, but there arejust a few spots behind Arizona State and
the pair wise at twenty second atmy last check. This is a team
you're very familiar with, right You'veplayed them a lot over the course of
the last few seasons. You justtalked about some of it, but like,
what should we be on the lookoutfor when this team comes to town,
and especially taking into account you knowhow it all kind of went down
last year. They're really well structuredand well coached and again, just hard

(43:45):
to play against Dinnell. They're alwaysabove pucks, their back pressures relentless,
their do have great gaps Eric's donea great job pulling kids out of the
portal in net. They've had reallygood goaltending the last few years. So
they're just a really well balanced team, you know. And you know last
year they had our number. Theywere, they were fighting to get in,
you know that they were they were, you know, thirteen to fourteen.

(44:07):
I think when they came in here, you know, our season was
pretty much over. We were decimatedby injury, and then we had to
go up there after that, youknow, or I think we went up
there, then we came down.I think they came down here. But
it's a it's a different it's adifferent scenario. This year. They're gonna
get our very best, our verybest effort, and and uh, we'll

(44:27):
see where they fall. Is thereany extra motivation with the revenge on the
mind from from what happened last year? Or is this just a new season
that's you know, you're gonna takecare of it. So I don't want
to call it revenge. I mean, you know, like they knew,
they knew what we were fighting lastyear when we played them and had literally
probably nothing to play for and hada you know, Brendan studioso up to
to finish off the year, andyou know, so it was it was,

(44:51):
it was, it was a itwas a weird ending of the year
with what we had to face.And we don't have that this year.
We're getting guys back. We're almostcompletely healthy minus Jackson, and there's no
excuses. We just need to goin and work, you know, going
to work and empty the tanks,like I said, and we do that
against anybody in the country. Ilike our chances, all right, coach

(45:14):
Coach Greg Powers on this Tuesday night. Always love chatting with you, sir,
appreciate your time and we will talkto you this Friday. Thanks guys.
Three periods down on Health Frozen Over. Much more to come in overtime
when we return. On this Tuesdaynight, Alex Coyle and I discussed some
of our observations from the Lindenwood seriesand how the Sun Devils can make the
best of their final eight games.Stick with us. Health Frozen Over back

(45:35):
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(48:54):
Here in the hots I got apromotion, then I'm home to good buddy.
Now, well we'll see what twoweeks now holds the Alaska trip.
Yeah right, Yeah, we maybe hating each other by then. But
all right, let's talk about ArizonaState's upcoming series. We'll start with the
prior series. We're down to eightgames to play, if you can believe
it. I don't want to falltoo deep into reflections on the season quite

(49:15):
yet, because we still got plentyof series to play. But man,
this has been so much fun,stressful but fun. Right. I think
we added up all the overtime minutes. I think it was up to sixty
five. Yeah, we've had afull game worth plus and overtime right of
the overtime. So it's been beenstressful, but I think that makes it

(49:35):
more fun, right. I agree. It's the intensity and winning two trophies
and winning a lot. We haven'tdone a lot of losing postgame shows,
which is much more fun. Yeah. Serious, I mean I think back
to that Miami series, right,which feels like ages ago now, and
like we were so bummed, andlike that was so early in the season.
I mean that was that was October, right, wasn't it last weekend
in October? Last weekend on inOctober? So we were only a few

(49:59):
weeks into that season. Man,this is just ridiculous. And then look
at where we're at now. Yeah, it's wild right, all right,
let's talk about the Lindenwood series.Shall we another one? The Devil's really
needed badly. They came out witha tie and a win. Good yes,
good enough? Probably not. Gameone was so reminiscent of the august
Stana series opener. Fortunately this oneended in a tie rather than a loss.

(50:22):
But ASU also never led in thegame against Lindenwood. I think the
positives certainly outweigh the negatives. Itstill frustrating to see that result. Frustrating
for sure. I think that whatI've gotten out of that tie was we
said it a couple of times,living to fight another day. Yeah,
showing the resiliency and the grit ofthe team to fight back and you know,

(50:44):
never lead, but find the wayto tie the game four times was
big and you played winning hockey.It was great to see the winning hockey
rewarded on Saturday. And I thinkgetting that tie, finding a way to
get that tie kept you alive.Game two, nice rebound, yep,
that was fun. Felt like therewas never a doubt. That's kind of

(51:06):
how the games against Augustan and lindenWood that were ties and losses kind of
should have felt ASU simply the moretalented team, and look they proved out
on Saturday didn't pay. Yeah,they did, and they played a complete
game too. Gibson Homer of coursedid what he needed to do, gave
the guys some confidence early with thosebig saves that Coach Powers mentioned and was
talking to some guys at practice todayand like the ability to well. Again,

(51:31):
going back to what they made TJso good was they were so confident
playing in front of TJ that wedidn't realize some of their mistakes right in
front of him. And Cop hada great answer about it that you guys
will hear this weekend on the onthe pregame shows about how much confidence that
he has in TJ and in Gibbieand how that has opened him up to

(51:53):
play offensively this year. Yeah,really excited to hear that. Don't forget
Friday six thirty PM pre games andPM puck drop. Certainly hope you join
us for that. Look the brawlsor whatever you want to call them,
at the end of the game onSaturday, they were wild. I know
we both watch a lot of hockey, right that could happen from time to
time, but man. I reallywas thinking Powers would have to call us

(52:15):
down from the booth just to geta few extra bodies on his bench.
At one point we counted nine skatersleft on the bench that weren't in the
penalty box that were given be sentto the showers early. But wild,
I'm not sure how far I'd beable to skate. But I mean,
that's like you start with nineteen skatersand you were down to nine, like
you know, is what it is. There were you know, insignificant in

(52:37):
the grand scheme of things, butlike it was fun. I guess there
was one like I'd seen a coupleof I guess the word you would call
them the brawls after hockey games,But I've never seen the dropping of gloves
like we saw. The two cameto mind. I believe it was the
last game of the twenty twenty twoseason against LU. You know how LAH

(52:59):
play and how they do things,Johnny Walker's final collegiate game and ocean side
last game and ocean Side and thebrawls. It took place then and then
twenty twenty right before COVID at MichiganState, after night one big brawl after
the horn and I believe as whocame back and won that second game to
split the series. If I amcorrect, Hockey's fun. Oh awesome,

(53:21):
all right, we got Alaska Fairbankscoming to town this weekend. This is
a team that beat Arizona State fourtimes in four games last year, so
vengeance certainly on their minds. It'sgotta be ASU is four eight and one
all time against the Nanooks, twoand four at home, obviously zero to
two at Mullet Arena. Specifically,this series is huge for a lot of

(53:44):
reasons, both past and present.It's gonna be an awesome, competitive,
intense series. And we said it, I think dating back to Augustana,
how excited we were for that tohappen because it's going to be a series
similar to Cornell. It's going tobe a game similar to what we saw
against Omaha, and that just madeit more fun. It may it kind
of felt like a playoff atmosphere withthe guys on the ice, combined with

(54:06):
the Mule Arena crowd, exactly whyCoach Powers wants to have on campus regional
sites and uh to have it fourgames in a row two here too.
There. I think that's gonna addeven more to it. We're gonna see
some more physical play, especially onceit gets up to Alaska, just because
the teams know each other and arethat familiar with one another. That better
not be the heaviest jacket you've got. It is, isn't it. I

(54:30):
knew it. Yeah, And you'regonna wanna wear layers. You're gonna wanna
wear layers. We'll see. Look, you just alluded to it. But
we've been saying we've been eyeing thesetwo series for a while. It's it's
like the championship series right in inbaseball in order to advance to the World
Series or or in this case,the NCAA Tournament to carries so much weight.
And I mentioned when we were talkingwith coach, like Alaska's right behind

(54:52):
Arizona State. It has been andcontinues to be the best opponent Arizona State
has left. They're probably I mean, I don't know what it looks like
if they perhaps sweep Arizona State andhave a chance, But if asus chances
are an uphill battle from here,Alaska's are really uphill, and yet they'll
play like they still have a chancetoo, right, And they are twenty

(55:13):
five right now at the end ofthe weekend they were at twenty two.
Again, that shows how volatile thepair wise in those segments that Coach Powers
was mentioning earlier. So there's gonnabe a lot of changing there. But
again, we touched on it backwhen we found out that Cornell was going
to be the team that we playedin the championship game of the Winter Invitational

(55:34):
up in Lake Placid, Like theseseven games, Like that's your seven game
series to advance in the playoffs.Yeah, it really is. And you
look at the situation you are now. You got to tie and two losses
against Cornell, you got to goout and take care of business against a
really tough Fairbanks team. Well,we will see how it all goes down.
We are back in action this weekendat Mullen Arena against Alaska Fairbanks.

(55:54):
You can follow along with us hereon the Mountain America Credit Unions Sun Devil
Radio Network. Pregame Friday is sixpoint thirty with a seven pm puck drop.
Saturday is four point thirty with anearly five pm puck drop. That'll
wrap things up for us. Ourthanks tonight to Sun Deevil Hockey head coach
Greg Powers and forward Benji Eckerley forjoining us. Special thanks to our producer
and engineer Sean Crespin and his fantasticteam behind the scenes, and of course,

(56:17):
our in studio coordinator Chris Schubert.We'll see you on Friday, February
ninth, six point thirty ASU andAlaska over at mullet In TMP. Thanks
for tuning in, everybody. Untilnext time, I'm Tyler Bailey. Good Night,