You heard that right, the boys are over in China currently playing a mini-tournament against some of the international professional teams, respectively, from the Kontinental Hockey League and the Supreme Hockey League.
This is possibly the best way to enter the upcoming hockey season. With a historic trip to China and to play international teams, the Sun Devil's will definitely be in shape and know what to improve on when they face Mercyhurst at their first home game on October 5th, at 7:05 pm.
The Sun Devils have already played a few games, with a win against Kunlun Red Star, Yermak Angarsk, and Org Beijing, and with a tough overtime loss to Tsen Tou Jilin City. The Sun Devils will play Kunlun again for the tournament championship on August 7th at 3:00 am MST.The sport of hockey may move more to China in the future as this trip may insight more attention to the sport and spark more hype in the next few years for the 2022 Winter Olympics that will be held in Beijing. As of now, China only has one professional hockey team, that being the Kunlun Red Star, as the KHL established them in 2016. Potentially, as the NFL has done with Great Britain, maybe the NHL will do with future teams, by sending them abroad to China, Russia, and other Eurasian countries as the sport of hockey continues to grow.
It's amazing to see a great sport being expanded to other countries and it's great for ASU to be along with that ride and to become a pioneer of the game. ASU has been a breakthrough team in the past couple of years, being ranked and going to the playoffs for the first time ever, and only having been a Division 1 team for 4 years now. It's amazing the strides that these men have been taking and the coaching staff and faculty behind them supporting them all the way.
