How to Watch Arizona State Hockey vs. St. Cloud State: Matchup, What To Know For Sun Devils NCHC Opener
Coming off a bye week with plenty of tasks to accomplish, Arizona State will re-focus on the main one: winning on the ice.
The Sun Devils will head north to Minnesota, to take on St. Cloud State in their NCHC season opener. Here's what you need to know.
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Dave Hakstol, after making his Arizona State debut in a road sweep of UMass-Lowell, will make his NCHC re-debut Friday. 12 years after his last game in the conference he helped create, he returns to college hockey and the sports' dominant conference.
Nick Oliver, the head coach for St. Cloud State, is also making his conference debut Friday. Just five games into his NCAA head coaching career, he'll face off as the lead man for his Alma matter against Hakstol and the Sun Devils.
Both teams are coming off a bye week, and receiving votes in the USCHO.com poll. A sweep by either side would likely propel them into the top 20.
About The Opposition
The St. Cloud State Huskies, located about an hour northwest of Minneapolis/St. Paul in Minnesota, have been a formidable program for many years now. One of six division 1 teams in the 'State of Hockey,' they've made the NCAA tournament 16 times since the turn of the century, and two Frozen Fours.
This season they sit at 2-3, playing ranked opponents in four of their first five games. An opening game loss in overtime on the road to Bemidji State was followed up by back to back series splits, with Michigan Tech(another overtime loss followed by a 5-3 win) and Boston College, where they fell for the first time in regulation in Chestnut Hill, before heading into the bye with another 5-3 win.
St. Cloud State averaged 2.8 goals for and 3.2 goals against through five games. They are 4-20(20%) on the power play, and 17-20(85%) on the PK, both respectable marks. Special teams have been a large factor in their contests, as the Huskies have committed five penalties a game, but also draw five penalties a game. That equal to a full period of hockey at 5 on 4 in some capacity.
The Huskies are led in points by Andover, MN native Gavyn Thoreson, who has tallied 7 in five games(2 goals, 5 assists). He's tied with Nolan Roed and Thor Byfuglien, two more Minnesota natives, for the team lead in goals. Byfuglien, the cousin of NHL veteran Dustin, is off to a great start, already doubling his career total in goals, after just two his first two season with St. Cloud State.
How to Watch: Streaming, Radio, Live Stats
When: Friday and Saturday, October 30th and 31st. Friday's game begins at 5 pm MST, and Saturday's contest begins at 4 pm MST
Where: Herb Brooks National Hockey Center, St. Cloud, MN
How to Watch: NCHC.tv. A paid service from the conference that live streams all conference members games. Offers daily, monthly, or season long access to all NCHC games, or school specific passes.
How to Listen: FoxSports AM910 in the Valley
Live stats will be on TheSunDevils.com for both games
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Fletcher Anderson is a 2025 graduate of the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism at Arizona State, and have been reporting for newspapers and writing sports columns since 2018. He began a sports column for the Lake Minnetonka Navigator, when he was still a sophomore in high school. Since then, he has written for teams, schools, newspapers and digital sites, including Cronkite News at Arizona State. In that role he covered area high school sports as well as the Arizona State athletics. He began contributing to On SI in 2026.