TEMPE, Ariz. — The Blues went back to school Tuesday night, playing at a college rink on the campus of Arizona State University.

Desperate for a place to play after their lease was terminated at Gila River Arena in Glendale, Arizona, the Arizona Coyotes signed a three-year lease to play here at Mullett Arena — home of the Sun Devils’ NCAA Division I program.

Lindenwood’s fledgling Division I team is playing here on Feb. 17-18 against the Sun Devils. On Thursday, the Blues got their turn against the Coyotes in NHL action. (The Blues will be here on March 7 for a return engagement.)

The $130 million-plus facility seats 4,600 — or about one-fourth of the capacity at Enterprise Center in St. Louis, where the Blues have sold out 23 of 24 home games.

So it was an intimate setting to say the least, more reminiscent of junior hockey or minor league hockey for many of the Blues.

“A smaller bowl that’s kinda right on top of you type thing,” Blues forward Jake Neighbours said after the team’s morning skate. “There’s been a lot of rinks I played on over in Western Canada that are very similar to it. It’ll be exciting. Usually there are good atmospheres in rinks like this.”

And what’s true in Western Canada is also true in Finland.

“Not bad,” said defenseman Niko Mikkola, a native of Kiiminki, Finland. “Very nice locker room. The rink is very small. There’s a lot of rinks like 5,000-6,000 (capacity) — there is that kind of stuff in Finland.”

The logos at center ice are split, with the Sun Devils’ pitchfork on one side of the red line. And the Coyotes’ Kachina symbol on the other side.

There is only one bowl in the facility — no upper and lower bowls — with no more than 14 rows in any section. Some have as few as nine rows.

Behind one of the nets is a section of bleacher seats — under a “Fear the Fork” sign — reserved for Arizona State students at $25 a game. They can buy them for NHL games as well as college games. But judging by the number of Blues fans sitting in the bleachers Thursday, many of the students made some money selling off their tickets.

On opening night for the Coyotes, Oct. 14, there was a popular mullet wig giveaway. You can buy one of them at the arena gift shop for $8, and sales remain brisk. In case you’re wondering, the name Mullett Arena has nothing to do with the mullet hair style.

The arena is named after Donald and Barbara Mullett, benefactors of Arizona State University.

Early in the season, the Coyotes embarked on a franchise-record 14-game road trip, while construction was completed on an annex that included a locker room for visiting NHL teams. That’s all completed now, with just one hitch — you have to walk outside for a few feet to get from the rink to the locker room in the annex.

“It’s nice to go like inside, outside, inside,” Mikkola said.

Maybe when it’s 60 degrees outside. The concept probably wouldn’t work in January in St. Louis.

“That’s true,” Mikkola said.

Neighbours and Coyotes forward Dylan Guenther spent about three years as junior hockey linemates for the Edmonton Oil Kings in the Western Hockey League. Neighbours was a first-round pick, No. 26 overall, in the 2020 NHL draft. Guenther went ninth overall in the 2021 draft.

“This will be our first time playing each other, I think ever, so it’ll be cool,” Neighbours said. “We’re really good friends — one of my best friends — and obviously played a lot of hockey together over the years. Definitely someone that I keep in touch with so it’ll be exciting.”

Neighbours had planned to have dinner with Guenther on Wednesday night in the Phoenix area, but those plans were scratched because the Blues’ charter was late arriving.

“But I’ll see him after the game,” Neighbours said.

Two first-rounders on the same line — that’s a pretty good junior hockey team.

“It just speaks to the talent level we had on that team last year,” Neighbours said.

The Oil Kings won the WHL title and went on to the Memorial Cup.