The No. 11 Arizona State Sun Devils (16-4-5) fell short against No. 18 Cornell (7-4-3) at home 3-2 in overtime on Saturday night in their second game against them following the Adirondack Winter Invitational.
It took two periods for the Sun Devils to get going, but the third period was all that they needed to force OT, an extra five minutes of hockey that this team has gotten very familiar with having to play in order to decide the outcome of their games.
ASU came out ready to play in the first few minutes of the first period. They generated multiple high-danger chances and many second-chance efforts off rebounds but could not make it count on the scoreboard.
After a series of chances for the Sun Devils, Cornell junior forward Ondrej Psenicka buried a rebound to give the Big Red a 1-0 lead on their first quality look of the game.
“I thought we had a really good first six, seven minutes of the game and then we gave up a goal,” head coach Greg Powers said. “We didn’t really manage pucks the way we wanted to.”
Cornell wasn’t generating much off the rush, but once they could make their way into the offensive zone, it did not take long for them to set it up and start getting pucks on the net to try and generate rebounds and loose pucks around the net.
“They have a nice controlled breakout, but they did not generate any offence from it,” Powers said. “All their offence came off getting pucks and bodies to the net and really owning the blue paint.”
Not too long after opening the scoring, Cornell returned with another goal to double their lead. Junior forward Kyle Penney redirected one past junior goaltender TJ Semptimphelter. ASU challenged the play for offside, which ended up being successful, keeping it a one-goal game.
That was not the last time the Sun Devils’ video review crew saved the team from digging themselves into a hole.
Minutes into the second period Cornell extended their lead to two. A scramble in front of the net ultimately resulted in freshman forward Ryan Walsh finding room to get one past Semptimphelter. Once again, the Sun Devils challenged this time for goaltender interference. They were successful for the second time and still only trailed Cornell by one.
With just under three minutes left in the second period, Cornell scored again, but this time it counted. The inability of the Sun Devils to move the puck out of the defensive zone caused a turnover, which led to freshman forward Jake Kraft sending a cross-ice feed over to sophomore forward Nick DeSantis, who made no mistake putting it into the back of the net, giving the Big Red a two-goal cushion.
A brand new team came out to play in the third period. The Sun Devils found their legs and started to make smarter and quicker decisions with the puck. It took some patience and effort for ASU to get on the board.
3:30 into the third period, sophomore forward Charlie Schoen drove wide before dishing one across to junior forward Ethan Szmagaj, who potted his first goal of the season to cut Cornell’s lead in half.
Less than three minutes later, junior forward Jackson Niedermayer tied things up at two. Senior forward Ryan O’Reilly made a nice pass towards the slot, allowing Niedermayer to wire it home.
“When you’re playing with two guys like Benji and O who have been on fire for the past couple of games it’s simple,” Niedermayer said.
It was a complete turnaround for ASU in the third period. They stopped standing still, watching the puck and began moving their feet and playing more intensely. The results showed for themselves.
“To fight back again down two against that team isn’t easy to do […] really proud of how we fought back,” Powers said.
To nobody’s surprise, this game remained tied after regulation. Overtime at the Mullett was something that had occurred on the regular.
Semptimphelter shut the door as much as he could, making more than a couple of huge saves in overtime, but eventually, the Big Red wanted it more, and it showed not only in overtime but throughout most of the game. Freshman defenseman Ben Robertson was the overtime hero giving Cornell a much-needed victory against a team just a couple of spots behind in the Pairwise rankings.
The Sun Devils can pick up a crucial win and split the season series with Cornell on Saturday evening to make the NCAA Tournament a bigger possibility.
“Tomorrow let’s start a new streak, we’re capable of it and that’s what we’re gonna have to do to get into the tournament,” Powers said.
The Sun Devils will host Cornell again on Saturday evening at 5 p.m. MST.
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