Creasy’s hockey path leads to Tempe

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This article was published 28/07/2023 (935 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Cody Creasy’s next adventure is taking him a long way south to find ice.

The Brandon goaltender, who earned a measure of notoriety in January when he scored a goal into an empty net for the Kootenay International Junior Hockey League’s Kamloops Storm, has committed to play for the Arizona State University Sun Devils in the American Collegiate Hockey Association.

“Thinking back to where I’ve come from, playing in Manitoba in small little rinks, the coldest rinks in the world, and then going down to Seattle and Kamloops and now Arizona, it’s really been an adventure for myself,” said Creasy, who turns 20 on Aug. 8. “I’m really grateful for how many places I’ve been to and with my family coming down to watch me, it’s been such an adventure for myself and them.”

He leaves on Saturday for the 28-hour drive to Tempe, Ariz., with his girlfriend Haley Roux-Hodgson. His mother Gloria will be along for the drive in another car as they stop in Las Vegas to celebrate his sister Emma’s 21st birthday.

School starts on Aug. 11, and four days of tryouts begin on Aug. 14.

Unlike many players, Creasy is starting school with a year of junior eligibility remaining.

“I feel confident playing at whatever level I’m at,” Creasy said, noting he’s carried that everywhere he played. “The other thing too is that with Arizona, you can’t go wrong in the heat and having a fun time out there.”

Creasy said the work on finding a school actually began before he entered his 19-year-old season. But he decided he wasn’t quite ready and put it off.

“I had a few thoughts about it for sure, applying to different places last season,” Creasy said. “I’ve had opportunities to talk to different teams at the end of last year with the same Division 1 hockey and I thought I needed an extra year of growth.

“This year I feel comfortable going out and playing, knowing that I have an extra year back here as a backup plan but this seems like the ball is rolling out there.”

He estimates he spoke to about 10 schools in Canada and the United States.

Arizona State University has Division 1, 2 and 3 club teams playing in the ACHA, and also has a NCAA Division 1 program, which provides Creasy with a unique opportunity.

Since university programs can’t trade for someone in the event of injury, callups from the ACHA squad to the NCAA are a very real possibility. Last season, forward Brendan Studioso made the jump from the Division 1 ACHA team, which is what Creasy was recruited for.

“Two seasons ago, the starting goalie from the ACHA team made his way up to the NCAA team and played there full time,” Creasy said. “He’s done that for two seasons I believe, so it is a possibility. One of the players last season got called up and scored a goal.

“The other thing is, they can only have three goalies on a team, and they can only draft from the school, so when a goalie is down, we’re the next one up.”

The other netminder pencilled into the lineup is OCN Blizzard graduate Chase Hamm of Saskatoon.

ASU’s Division 1 club is one of 10 teams that plays in the ACHA-affiliated Western Collegiate Hockey League. They play about 21 conference games, with 14 non-conference games.

They will be skating in what’s temporarily serving as a National Hockey League arena, since the Arizona Coyotes are playing at Arizona State’s 5,000-seat Mullett Arena.

Tempe is a community of 180,000 located straight south of Lethbridge, Alta., and bordered by Phoenix to the west. The university has nearly 55,000 students attending classes at its 660-acre Tempe campus. Creasy has been down twice to visit.

“It’s a big campus but it seems like everyone kind of mingles quite a bit,” Creasy said. “The campus itself is beautiful. The hockey rink is big, and it’s right beside the football stadium. It’s another huge thing at the school that draws a lot of attention.”

The football team plays out of Sun Devil Stadium, a 53,599-seat venue that opened in 1958 and has been renovated several times since.

“It should be amazing going to football and hockey,” Creasy said. “They’re right beside each other so it should be pretty busy on weekends.”

Of course, scholastics was also a major factor for the teenager. ASU also proved to be a perfect fit for his studies.

“The business side of it was outstanding to me,” Creasy said. “They have a really good business course out there, which is what my passion is, entrepreneurship and all that stuff. They have a really course out there for me and that was one of the main focuses when I was looking at schools.

“On the other side of it, it’s a place that felt like a vacation at all times.”

After starting his sports journey as a youngster in Hockey Brandon, Creasy spent his 14- and 15-year-old seasons playing prep hockey at Notre Dame in Wilcox, Sask.

He returned to Brandon to join the U18 AAA Wheat Kings for the 2019-20 season, and was listed by the Western Hockey League’s Seattle Thunderbirds.

After having a torn meniscus in his knee fixed, he essentially lost 18 months of hockey, and was released after he tried out for the Manitoba Junior Hockey League’s Virden Oil Capitals before the 2021-22 season. Fortunately, Kamloops was looking for a goalie and he earned a job with the Storm.

In 20 appearances last season, he was 10-7-0-0 with a 2.25 goals-against average and a .913 save percentage for Kamloops, which finished second in the Doug Birks Division with a record of 26-13-1-4. In the opening round of the playoffs, however, they fell in seven games to the Sicamous Eagles.

Over two seasons, he had four shutouts, a 1.94 goals-against average and a .922 save percentage. While he’s accomplished a lot, it’s the goal on Jan. 27 against the Summerland Steam that has proven to be a fertile topic of conversation in the last few months.

“Coming home, my first week, that’s all my family and my friends wanted to talk about,” Creasy said with a chuckle. “It comes up every once in a while. I tried it again a little while ago (in a Westman Summer Hockey League game) and all the guys were making fun of me that I couldn’t do it again.

“It was a once-in-a-lifetime moment.”

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