There have been a lot of incredible moments at Mullett Arena in its short lifetime, but possibly none as loud as when graduate forward Tyler Gratton scored the OT winner to lift the No. 16 Arizona State Sun Devils (7-1-1) over the No. 2 University of Denver Pioneers (6-1-2) with a 5-4 win.
Although the dramatic OT winner might overshadow the whole game, the Sun Devils didn’t play the best throughout the game and were outshot drastically by the end of it by the Pioneers.
However, junior goaltender T.J. Semptimphelter kept his team in it once again while the Sun Devils offense kept finding ways to put the puck in the net, overcoming their highly ranked rivals.
“The resiliency of our group, they’ve shown it all year,” ASU head coach Greg Powers said. “It was really impressive, especially obviously the Jackson line with (Lukas) Sillinger. Top to bottom, our guys just just never wavered. They fought and found a way to get it done.”
The Sun Devils started the scoring in the game. On the power play, some fantastic passing by sophomore forward Charlie Schoen and senior forward Lukas Sillinger found the stick of senior forward Ty Jackson, who roofed it home into the back of the empty net, making it 1-0. It was Sillinger’s eighth point so far in the season, an impressive start, but it wouldn’t be his only point of the game.
The Sun Devils got another power play, but this time, the man advantage did not work out their way. A complete defensive collapse let Pioneer junior forward Carter King escape on a breakaway and put the puck right past Semptimphelter.
Defensive lapses that allowed the Pioneers to skate around the Sun Devils easily were a big flaw in the Sun Devils’ play.
“I think we can take away their time and space,” Gratton said. “They’re a very skilled team, especially when they have the puck in their stick. So if we take away their time and space and close on pucks defensively a lot faster, we’ll be able to catch them in transition a lot. That’s something that their line did really well tonight. If all four of our lines play like their line did tonight, we’re gonna be in really good shape tomorrow.”
Freshman defenseman Zeev Buium scored the second Pioneers goal with a wrist shot to make it 1-2. Minutes later, Sun Devil senior forward Dylan Jackson made a nice play with his stick to go on an odd-man rush and score his first of the game, tying it at two.
The Sun Devils allowed their defense to collapse once more during a powerplay, which resulted in another shorthanded goal by King to make it 2-3.
Despite the success of the penalty kill and, at some points in time, the power play, Gratton knows there are things to work on special teams-wise.
“There was a lot from the special teams tonight,” Gratton said. “Good and bad. So I think there’s a lot of areas that we can clean up and then also move forward with that and we’ll be good.”
The King goal did not phase the Sun Devils, and just seconds later, Dylan Jackson laid a beautiful shot down to beat freshman goaltender Freddie Halyk for his second of the game and knotted the score at three.
While the Seun Devils might have done well on the PK up until the third, the unit didn’t open up the final regulation period that way. Freshman forward Miko Matikka blasted the puck right past Semptimphelter to put the Pioneers in the lead again.
However, the Sun Devils did not back down. Sillinger grabbed the stray puck that squirted from a scrum in front and deposited it into an empty net to get his third point of the night. 4-4.
Matikka scored again after he finessed the puck right off a Sun Devil’s stick and shot it past Semptimphelter. Powers’ group wouldn’t give up, which was something he loved to see out of his group.
“Everything about tonight was just resiliency,” Powers said. “It’s a group of kids where we’re gonna go down swinging no matter what and then we ended up throwing the last punch.”
Dylan Jackson came into the Pioneers’ zone on his knees and pulled off perhaps one of the most beautiful goals he’s scored in his career. That goal would complete the hat trick and tie up the game, this time at 5-5.
Then, the overtime stage was set. The Sun Devils are no strangers to taking down ranked teams in overtime. Taking down Merrimack this season and Minnesota last season, both times in Mullett Arena.
The Sun Devils’ defense prevented Denver from having any quality shot on net, which eventually led to a two-on-one opportunity for the Sun Devils. Graduate defenseman Brandon Tabakin raced into the Pioneers’ zone and stopped near the blue line. The New York native then slid a puck over to Gratton, who shot a perfectly placed wrist shot to beat the goaltender and score the OT winner, sending Mullett Arena into bedlam.
Gratton’s goal gave the Sun Devils their seventh win of the season and their biggest win. However, despite big games from Gratton and Dylan Jackson, both want the team to focus on game two against Denver, knowing that they’ll come out angrier and more motivated to win.
“Obviously everyone in the locker room felt really good but as Tyler [Gratton] said, we can’t get too high on emotion when we win and we got a game to play tomorrow,” Dylan said.
Still, it’s an impressive win that shows the Sun Devils are ranked for a reason and will continue to play resiliently even against the highest-ranked teams in the nation.
“The atmosphere I think was unbelievable,” Powers said. “It’s so great. The first future conference opponent of the season to experience Mullett with the crowd, the energy, and the atmosphere. I’m sure Denver obviously wanted to come out on the other end, but it was a fun hockey game for everybody to be part of.”
The Sun Devils will host the Pioneers for the series’ final game Saturday night at 5 p.m. MST.
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