TEMPE, Ariz. — Arizona State rarely had time to settle with the puck before another UNLV player arrived. That started on the opening shifts Thursday night and continued long after the outcome was decided, as the Rebels scored twice in the first eight minutes, repeatedly won pucks back before Arizona State could get through neutral ice and opened the 2026-27 season with a 5-1 win at Mountain America Community Iceplex.
UNLV finished with a 52-17 advantage in shots. Oliver Band scored twice and added an assist, Ryder McIntosh scored 1:54 into the game and Liam Choquette stopped 16 of 17 shots in his first start for the Rebels. Nine UNLV players recorded at least one point, four of the Rebels’ eight assists came from defensemen and Arizona State finished scoreless on five power plays.
The first goal came out of the kind of sequence that defined the beginning of the night. UNLV kept the puck around the Arizona State net, bodies converged around Hayden Manning and McIntosh finished the play for a 1-0 lead before two minutes had passed.
UNLV went right back at Arizona State after the goal. When the Sun Devils moved the puck toward neutral ice, the Rebels closed quickly and sent it back the other way, and several Arizona State possessions ended before the Sun Devils could establish anything in the offensive zone. UNLV kept returning to Manning and had already put nine shots on goal before the first period reached its midway point.
Band made it 2-0 at 7:35, with Luke Backel and Dylan Gordon picking up the assists. It was UNLV’s 11th shot of the game before eight minutes had passed, and the Rebels continued forcing Arizona State to defend through most of the opening period.
The Sun Devils eventually began to settle. They defended better after Band’s goal, disrupted more of UNLV’s possessions and generated a few more opportunities late in the period, but UNLV still carried a 16-7 advantage in shots into the first intermission.
Arizona State carried that improvement into the second period and, for a few minutes, the game changed. Sheldon Wilson generated one of the Sun Devils’ better chances before Choquette made the save, and Arizona State began spending more time on the other end of the rink than it had during the opening 20 minutes.
The Sun Devils finally broke through at 5:16. Arizona State won an offensive-zone faceoff, got the puck toward Choquette and Trevor Kennedy stayed with the play to score when the puck remained alive around the net. Luke Chase picked up the assist, and UNLV’s lead was down to 2-1.
Arizona State followed with more pressure over the next few minutes. For the first time all night, UNLV was not immediately sending every possession back toward Manning, and the Sun Devils had begun to turn a game dominated by the Rebels in the first period into something much more competitive.
UNLV answered before that stretch could become anything more. Calahan Butler was called for hooking at 8:18, and Band scored nine seconds later from Deven Nagra to restore the two-goal lead.
The power-play goal changed the period again. Arizona State had spent several minutes building some momentum and had finally gotten within one, only for Band’s second goal to make it 3-1 before the Sun Devils could add anything to Kennedy’s goal.
UNLV spent much of the rest of the period making things harder on itself. Thomas Manzella III was called for holding at 10:37, Mason Kelly for throwing a stick at 15:53 and Ryan Winklebleck for interference at 18:52. Kelly and Arizona State’s Jake King then received matching minors with 13 seconds remaining.
Arizona State had repeated opportunities with the extra skater but could not turn them into a goal. UNLV repeatedly cleared the puck and forced the Sun Devils to come through neutral ice again, while Choquette handled the chances that did reach him. Arizona State entered the third period 0-for-4 on the power play and still down 3-1.
That two-goal margin lasted less than two minutes. Luke Baker scored 1:50 into the third period from Nagra and Mario DiMaggio. Arizona State had barely returned to even strength from a power play that carried over from the second period before Baker made it 4-1.
Shaun Rios added another at 5:34. Arizona State appeared to have an opportunity to move the puck out before UNLV kept it inside the zone, Band eventually found Rios in the middle and the freshman finished for his first official goal with the Rebels. Backel also picked up an assist, while Band completed a three-point night.
From there, Manning spent most of the period trying to keep the score from climbing. UNLV continued holding pucks inside the offensive zone, Arizona State struggled to relieve the pressure with clean exits and shots kept coming from the blue line, the wings and around the net.
The Rebels outshot Arizona State 23-3 in the third period. Manning made 21 saves in the period alone and finished with 47 on 52 shots, a workload that said much more about his night than the five goals allowed.
Choquette had a different kind of first start. He faced seven shots in each of the first two periods and only three in the third, but Arizona State’s five power plays gave him enough important work to make the night meaningful.
The Nichols College transfer handled all five power plays without allowing a goal. He stopped Wilson during Arizona State’s best stretch in the second period, dealt with several chances while UNLV was short-handed and allowed only Kennedy’s even-strength goal over 60 minutes.
Jimmy Mologousis and Owen Zenone dressed behind Choquette but never entered the game. UNLV began the season without an established replacement for Douglas Wakelyn, and Choquette got the first opportunity in a three-goaltender competition that Anthony Vignieri-Greener never needed to settle before opening night.
One game will not settle it now, either, but Choquette gave UNLV a clean first look. He played every minute, finished with 16 saves and did not allow Arizona State to use UNLV’s penalties to get back into the game.
The scoring was spread through the lineup in front of him. Band finished with two goals and an assist, Backel and Nagra each had two assists and McIntosh, Baker and Rios scored once apiece. Charles Masek, Gordon and DiMaggio each added an assist.
Four of UNLV’s eight assists came from defensemen. Nagra had two, while Gordon and DiMaggio each had one, giving the Rebels some immediate production from a blue line replacing Jaxsen Wyatt’s 40 regular-season points from last season.
UNLV did not need one defenseman to reproduce all of that Thursday. It did not need one forward line to carry the offense, either, as five goals came from four different players and nine Rebels reached the scoresheet.
The part Vignieri-Greener will not want repeated Friday is the time UNLV spent in the penalty box. The Rebels were assessed eight penalties for 24 minutes, and Manzella and Arizona State’s Matt Keylor were involved in a late confrontation that ended with both receiving 10-minute misconducts after the game had already reached 5-1.
Arizona State never made UNLV pay for any of it. The Sun Devils finished 0-for-5 on the power play, while UNLV scored on one of its four opportunities.
For most of the rest of the night, Arizona State had another problem. The Sun Devils could get the puck away from one Rebel and still find another before they could go anywhere with it, and that pressure eventually became too much for Manning to keep covering.
UNLV waited until Oct 1, 2026 to play its first game. Once it did, Arizona State spent most of the night trying to keep up.
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