Playing hockey in Michigan, sophomore Justin King has skated with a lot of talent. He remembers one skater in particular: Chicago Blackhawks forward Patrick Kane.

“He skated with my brother on [his select team] when he was two years younger than him,” King said. “Last time I saw him play, he probably 11 years old. Shows how much you can improve. It’s kind of cool seeing them. You know ‘em, you used to play with ‘em, and now they’re in the NHL.”

During their visit to suburban Chicago this past weekend, the No. 6 Sooner hockey club got more than the satisfaction of sweeping No. 18 Robert Morris College on the road. The Sooners were also invited to watch the NHL’s Chicago Blackhawks go through their first practice of the season.

King said he was glad to see Blackhawks’ defenseman and assistant captain Duncan Keith on the ice too. Keith was the captain at Michigan State, the school just a few miles away from King’s hometown of DeWitt.

But while the players were watching some of their peers shine in the pros, the college hockey club was also taking notes, especially on defense.

“They are always in the right spot,” King said. “It’s your knowledge of the game more than your speed or puck handling ability.”

And that is the lesson the coaches wanted the team to pick up.

”It’s not just guys running around after pucks or from one side to the other,” head coach Tom Murphy said.

Instead, Murphy compares the Sooners defense to tactics used in soccer, such as taking angles against opponents, staying in certain zones and maintaining a triangle type of defense.

“We have to score goals to win but our goal as a team is we pride ourselves on holding teams to under 20 shots per game,” Murphy said.

The Sooners (7-1-0) have held opponents to less than 20 shots in five out of their eight games this season.

Although Murphy says that he has no clear number one goalie right now, he did give junior goalie Chad Helgason the nod in both of the Sooners games this past weekend. Murphy has been rotating Helgason with freshmen goalies Matt Pombo and Colin Sablotny.

“We wanted to go with Chad because we were playing a really good team that we thought he would be best suited for,” Murphy said. “It’s hard to get wins on the road and you have two rookies and it’s hard to start games on the road. You would rather get them starts in their own barn with their own crowd.”

Helgason stopped 38 of the 41 shots he saw last weekend.

While many of the Sooners got onto the score board in either of OU’s 4-2 or 5-1 contests last weekend, only King scored one goal in each game. And, like his piers Patrick Kane and Duncan Keith, King still has hopes to join them in the NHL.

“It just shows you that it takes one good year of college hockey to get noticed,” he said. “All it takes is one or two breakout years and next thing you know you can be in the NHL.”

King will have the chance to continue his breakout season this weekend as the Sooners host Arizona State (4-0-0). OU is 8-4 all time against the Sun Devils. Friday is the first of five meetings between the teams this season.