Arizona State (7-14-1) at No. 3 Denver (12-4-4)

When: 7:30 p.m. Friday and 7 p.m. Saturday

Radio/TV: 1o4.3 FM, Altitude2 on Friday; 1600 AM on Saturday

Overview

Believe it or not, Arizona State comes to Magness Arena with a better record over its past four games (2-1-1) than Denver does (1-2-1). The difference is while the Sun Devils were sweeping Hockey East bottom-feeder Massachusetts, the Pioneers split with No. 1 Minnesota-Duluth. Both teams went 0-1-1 last weekend (DU at Providence, ASU at home vs. Brown and St. Cloud State). You never know what you’ll get from Arizona State – it has lost 9-2 to then-No. 9 Notre Dame and a combined 13-2 to then-No. 13 Harvard, but it also routed an Air Force team that gave DU fits in late November, 5-2.

Offense

The Denver Post reported Henrik Borgstrom (16 points, 8 goals in 14 games) is expected to return to Denver’s lineup, which should help an offense that has been a bit stagnant of late (four goals in its past three games). World Junior Championships semifinal hero Troy Terry (17 points) is playing in the gold-medal game Thursday night so a Friday appearance by him would be expecting a lot, but perhaps he will lace them up for DU on Saturday. Defenseman Will Butcher leads DU with 18 points and Dylan Gambrell has 17 in 15 games. Jarid Lukosevicius (11 points, 7 goals), Matt Marcinew (9, 5) and Evan Janssen (5 goals) also add offense up front. …

The Sun Devils average 2.77 goals per game, which is slightly more than the Pioneers’ 2.65. Both figures are in the bottom half of the 60 Division I teams. Senior Robbie Baillargeon, an Ottawa Senators prospect who is a graduate transfer from Boston University, leads the Sun Devils with nine goals and 17 points. Sophomore Louis Rowe (14 points, five goals), freshman Tyler Busch (13, 6), junior Wade Murphy (13, 5) and sophomore Anthony Croston (13, 10 assists) are other primary threats from the forward group.

Defense

Regardless of what happens in front of him, junior Tanner Jaillet has continued to be a rock for the Pioneers. His 2.05 GAA and .924 save percentage both are among the top 12 nationally. Senior Evan Cowley (1.42, .942) also has been excellent this season. DU allows just 2.1 goals per game (6th) and has given up as many as three just eight times and more than that only once. …

Three goaltenders have played in at least eight games for ASU, and freshman Joey Daccord is an Ottawa prospect. None has been stellar – all three have GAAs north of 4 and save percentages under .885. So it would follow that their 4.41 goals allowed per game ranks second worst out of the 60 Division I teams.

Special teams

Somehow Denver hits on just 16.3 percent of its power plays (37th). I write somehow because the Pioneers’ first unit has the potential to be as good as any in Division I when all the pieces are together. Their penalty kill has dropped to 82.1 percent (36th) after Providence scored three of its five goals last weekend on the PP. Before that, the PK was unreal, save for hiccups against Air Force and Wisconsin. …

This has been a struggle for the Sun Devils overall. They connect just 12.5 percent of the time on the power play (51st) and kill off 75 percent (56th) of their penalties. The power play has been an all or nothing proposition most of the season – ASU has four games in which it has scored two PPGs but also has been blanked in 13. Baillargeon is the biggest power-play threat (four goals), but freshman defenseman Brinson Pasichnuk also has four points (2-2).