TEMPE, Ariz. – If you take a look at Arizona State’s record in 2025 compared to last year, you’d assume this season has been a disappointment.

But the Sun Devils have had a brutal schedule to begin the 2025-26 season, playing six teams ranked in the top 10, with most games on the road.

However, the new year provided a breather for ASU, playing its first unranked team in over a month, since Ohio State on Nov 28, 2025, and Nov 29, 2025.

Coach Greg Powers said his team needed to take advantage of the scheduling break.  

“That's the evolution of our program,” Powers said. “We play such a tough schedule in the NCHC… and so our team is weathered because of that. When you get the opportunity to play non-conference teams like (Alaska) Anchorage, you gotta pound them.”

The Arizona State Sun Devils (10-10-1) did just that, defeating the Alaska Anchorage Seawolves (3-11-0) 7-2 at Mullett Arena on Jan 2, 2026. The big story of the game was sophomore forward Cullen Potter recording a hat trick, picking up his ninth, 10th, and 11th goals of the season.

After a disappointing start to the season for his standards, Potter has been on a heater for the Sun Devils over the past month.

“He's special, and I'm happy for him because he's obviously on a tear right now after a pretty slow start offensively,” Powers said. “But we knew it would come and man, he's driving it for us.”

Potter has now scored goals in four consecutive games, crediting his teammates for setting him up and taking inspiration from current NHL players.

“Guys like (Auston) Matthews and those guys, the best scorers in the world, they get the puck off fast,” Potter said. “So just been trying to get the puck off quicker. And obviously Cruzer (Lucius) has helped a little bit with setting me up.”

Sophomore forward Ty Nash also recorded a multi-point game, scoring two goals and adding an assist. It was performance that he needed to increase his trust in his abilities.

“Yeah, it was big for me,” Nash said. “I've been struggling with my confidence a little bit, and so  seeing those two go in the back of the net is definitely nice for me.”

Physicality was also a significant factor in the game for both teams. Early in the first and second periods, both occurring 13 seconds into the periods, there were stoppages of play due to the players getting chippy with each other.

Sophomore forward Logan Morrell was called for a boarding penalty early in the first period, delivering a hit to senior forward Conor Cole in the Seawolves' offensive zone. After the teams got into it with each other, the officials separated the players and penalized Morell.

As the second period began, players once again got into it, with four players – two on each team – getting penalized for roughing.

“We've established what our standard needs to be for this team to be successful, and it's establishing a forecheck, it's getting bodies (in front) of the net, you know?” Powers said. “You can't do those two things without having a physical mindset.”

After two straight road series, which included a week off beforehand, this game was the first of a six-game homestand, with games against Air Force tomorrow, Miami of Ohio next week and North Dakota a week after.

The Sun Devils are excited to be back home and are hoping as the spring semester begins, there will be even more fans and students in attendance to show their support.

“Feels like we hadn't had a game here in a year,” Powers said. “Going into tonight, it was awesome to be back. The fans were great. Crowd was great. We can't wait for the students to get back next week against Miami and then North Dakota. But we're one down, five to go. And we're looking at this six game segment at home; it’s one that we really need to stack some wins and put ourselves in really good situation.”