After a disappointing tie against the Lindenwood Lions (5-15-4) on Friday, Arizona State coach Greg Powers told the media that his team needed to leave nothing to chance in game two.
No. 17 Arizona State (18-6-6) answered the coach’s call and played with a sense of urgency, dominating Lindenwood 5-1 on Saturday at Mullet Arena.
Senior forwards Lukas Sillinger and Matthew Kopperud both scored in the first period and junior forward Jackson Niedermayer netted two second-period goals. Sophomore forward Ryan Alexander had two assists.
The Sun Devils offense fired on all cylinders for the second straight game, but sophomore goalie Gibson Homer made a career-high 32 saves and gave ASU the extra stops they missed in game one. Homer received the starting nod in net after junior goaltender TJ Semptimphelter allowed four goals on 20 shots on Friday.
“Obviously TJ is a hell of a goalie,” Homer said. “But my role on the team is whenever I get put in I gotta do my job. The team has faith in me, so yeah, just doing my role and my job. TJ is gonna figure it out eventually. He’s a great goalie, as he’s shown for three-quarters of the year.”
The Lions outpaced ASU early in the first period, but Homer made a few big saves to keep it a scoreless game. Then Sillinger’s snapped shot from below the right circle put the Sun Devils on the board with 5:17 remaining in the first.
Senior defenseman Tim Lovell made the play happen and extended his point streak to five games. After entering the zone, he faked a shot to force Lindenwood junior goalie Trent Burnham out of his net and fed Sillinger a pass from behind the goal line. It was Lovell’s 25th assist of the year, one night after breaking the program record for most assists in a season by a defenseman.
Less than 90 seconds later, Kopperud fired a wrist shot above the slot to give ASU a 2-0 lead. It was his third goal in two games.
Six minutes into the second period, Niedermayer took the puck up ice from his own zone and scored on a two-on-one with Lukas Sillinger streaking along the far side.
“As soon as I picked it up, [coach] Powers yelled, ‘Shoot!’,” Niedermayer said. “I actually completely whiffed on it, and it was on the ice and went off the post. I don’t know if you see many of those but we’ll take it.”
A couple of minutes later, sophomore forward Charlie Schoen received a 5-minute major and game misconduct for head contact. The Sun Devils didn’t concede any dangerous scoring chances and killed the penalty. But, Powers was forced to rotate other wingers to replace Schoen on the first line for the rest of the game.
One of them was Niedermayer, who scored his second goal of the period on another odd-man rush to make it 4-0 with 1:19 remaining in the middle frame. Alexander deked around the Lindenwood defenders before passing to Niedermayer, who buried his forehand shot.
“I mean I’m playing with Lucas [Sillinger] and Ryan [Alexander],” Niedermayer said. “Both are great players. And I think Silly [Sillinger] kind of gave a push there to get ahead of the game. So I mean that’s a good play by Silly too. And then RA found me, I just went to the net. I know he’s gonna get the puck on my stick. So credit to those two. They set it all up.”
ASU opened the third period playing like they were the team playing from behind. Three and a half minutes in, junior defenseman Ethan Szmagaj put home a rebound to score his second goal of the season, giving the Sun Devils a 5-0 lead. The fourth line forwards registered their first points of the night as freshmen Tony Achille and Cole Helm had an assist.
“Some of the freshmen will continue to climb and find roles as they advance their careers here,” Powers said. “Cole Gordon, Cole Helm and Tony Achille, they were animals. They played hard, they’re great teammates and they know their roles.”
Despite the five-goal differential, the third period didn’t lack drama. With eight minutes remaining, a full line scrum ensued after Lindenwood fifth-year senior Adam Conquest punched freshman forward Cole Gordon. Helm and Lovell wrestled Lions sophomore forwards Coltan Wilkie and Drew Kuzma to the ice. All six players were ejected from the game.
“I mean it got chippy, but at the end of the day we were really just defending ourselves,” Powers said. “And you never like to see the penalty minutes get that high, especially on either side. I thought that there were some things that happened that they [officials] missed. One of their kids tomahawk chopped our bench in the head. That sent our guys off and you saw what happened after that.”
Less than two minutes after the skirmishes, ASU senior forward Ryan O’Reilly and Lions junior forward David Gagnon were sent to the box for roughing after another post-whistle melee. O’Reilly received a double-minor to put the Lions on the power play.
Lindenwood freshman Jaeden Mercier scored on the man advantage to end Homer’s shutout bid. The goal was the only blemish to ASU’s penalty kill unit. The Sun Devils were otherwise excellent playing shorthanded. The Lions were one-for-eight on the power play.
The game had 139 penalty minutes in total. Only two of them came from Sun Devils junior defenseman Ty Murchison. His first-period roughing penalty gave him the ASU program record for career penalty minutes (210), passing former Sun Devil Tyler Busch.
Lindenwood sophomore forward Joe Prouty recorded the game’s final 10 penalty minutes and the eighth and final expulsion of the night for another scuffle with 20 seconds left.
When the gloves and sticks were finally picked up, and the final horn blew, ASU earned a desperately needed victory. The Sun Devils entered the game ranked No. 21 in the PairWise, and will need to move into the top 16 to qualify for an NCAA Tournament berth.
“We have to keep stacking wins if we’re going to have a chance to get into this thing,” Powers said. “We’re not going to throw in the towel. Our guys are going to fight until the very end and we’ll see where we’re at after tonight.”
The additional mark in the win column won’t advance ASU to where it needs to be in the PairWise. But with eight games remaining, more results like Saturday’s give the Sun Devils a fighting chance at getting there.
The Sun Devils will host Alaska Fairbanks (12-9-2) for a two-game series next weekend. Game one is Friday at 7 p.m. MST.
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