Arizona State hockey clinched their first 20-win season in school history Friday night, defeating American International 4-1 in the first leg of a two-game series.
The Sun Devils (20-10-1) rode strong performances from freshmen Demetrios Koumontzis and Joshua Maniscalco against the speedy Yellow Jackets (17-13-1).
“It’s a great milestone for our program. That’s what I told the guys,” ASU head coach Greg Powers said. “A bit of an ugly win. They came out and they punched us right in our mouth.”
It took the Sun Devils, who are currently ranked No. 9 by the USCHO’s PairWise rankings, nearly two periods to pull ahead of an aggressive American International team.