ASU Hockey: Where I was right and where I was wrong

STRONGSVILLE, Ohio– At the beginning of the season, I made four predictions on what I thought was going to happen for the season. You can check to make sure I'm not lying here (and yes, I do have the ability to edit it stories, but I promise you House of Sparky readers, I wouldn't do that to you). So how did I do? Read below! (spoiler: I rock)

Prediction: Ostertag leads the team with 32 goals and finishes top-five in the nation. Sean Murphy anchors second line with 25 goals and has two hat tricks during the season.

Hmmm...not even close. Ostertag went down in practice after the second game of the season and did not return all year. He finished with four goals, or 28 shy of my prediction. As for the second part, still not very close. Murphy became more of a distributor and less of the goal-scorer I thought he would be. He did finish with 23 assists though, but 16 goals. And he did not have a hat trick.

I'll hide my face in shame now.

Prediction: Levin finishes with a 1.40 GAA, .940 save percentage and matches his eight shutouts.

Getting somewhat warmer. Levin finished with a 1.78 goals against average and a .933 save percentage, so at least I was in the ballpark on this one. And he did match his shutouts, then exceeded it with a ninth. I'm going to go ahead and take credit for this one.

Prediction: A 13-2-1 conference record clinches second WCHL title.

ASU's 14-2-0 conference record gets me a gold star. The Sun Devils swept Arizona in the four games that count as WCHL games (the other four are nonconference), swept the three against Colorado, swept the three against Colorado State, went 2-1 against Central Oklahoma and 2-1 against Oklahoma. And yeah, they won the conference title.

/takes a bow.

Final prediction: 35-4-2 regular season, WCHL title, Final Four appearance, Ostertag, Schmidt, Levin named to first team All-ACHA.

The Sun Devils had a few cancellations on them this season like Syracuse not coming, so they ended up playing 37 regular season games instead of 41. They went 33-3-1. So once again, good for me. They also won their conference and made the final four. Ostertag obviously won't make first-team All-ACHA, but Levin and Schmidt both made first team All-WCHL, so the have a chance.

All in all, not too bad. Stay tuned next year as I try to predict the NCAA season and come up flat on every single one!