Sport Clubs: Roller Hockey DI and DIII Teams Both Finish Regular Season at #1

Q: How does it feel to be a part of one of the two teams that represent ASU at the top of the table for the Western Collegiate Roller Hockey League’s regular (WCRHL) season?

A: [DI Forward, Kyle Friedman] I am a senior on the DI team this year. ASU has built a record of success in both DI and DIII over the last 10 years and has won multiple DIII regional championships, as well as being the National runner-up, with a loss in the DI National Championship game some years back. Myself as well as many others in our program, have played for ASU’s teams for multiple years now and it feels good to be a part of the programs continued success.

Q: Can you explain the type of Roller hockey that your DI and DIII teams do and how that style of play may be different from ice hockey/ the same as ice hockey?

A: The biggest difference between ice and roller hockey is that there are no offsides or icing in roller hockey. This makes roller hockey a game of possession… where as in ice hockey you’re pressing to gain/maintain possession in the offensive zone, in roller hockey you have a greater ability to possess the puck on the entire rink.

Q: Since this season has been the best of ASU’s club Roller hockey program in the past ten years, do you think that anything changed as far as a team mindset that helped your teams do so well?

A: We have 2 great coaches who know hockey and who instill a mindset of winning each year. We also have a really great group of guys this year who want to win. This year also brought some key returning players and some good new additions to our rosters which been a big part of our success.

Q: How do your teams keep momentum to continue to play so well even after only having 1 loss this season? Is there special training or team bonding that happens before or after each game?

A: Our season is long, we have tryouts in early September and don’t finish until Mid-April. Spring semester is especially tough because we travel more and play more games in a shorter period of time than we do in the Fall. There’s no special team bonding/training that I can speak of but our relationships on and off the rink has been a big part of our continued momentum.

Q: The regional championships are coming up this weekend. Does the training for this type of competition differ from the regular season games? 

A: As we near regionals and nationals we tend to add a few extra practices and extend our practice time by a little bit. We don’t change our game plan much going into regionals because we know most of what to expect from these teams as we’ve played them several times already this season. After regionals we will spend more time preparing for the teams we will see at nationals.

Q: Is there a type of pressure that goes into this regional championship knowing all that your teams have accomplished?

A: There is a little pressure, our DI team has never won a regional championship and our DIII team is coming off a disappointing loss last season. Both our teams have had really good seasons and we will be disappointed in ourselves if we don’t continue that this weekend in California.

Q: What would you tell anyone that wants to support both the DI and DIII teams of ASU for your regional championship games? Or if you all make it to the national championships? 

A: Our regional championships are in Corona, California and live scoring should be available this weekend on WCRHL.org. National Championships for DI start April 11th and for DIII on April 13th, both in Fargo, North Dakota. Free live streaming will be on the NCRHA.org website during nationals.