No. 12 Arizona State hockey (16-10-1) fought its way back multiple times but No. 6 Denver (20-6-1) was able to come away with a 5-4 overtime victory on a thrilling Friday night at Mullett Arena in Game One of a National Collegiate Hockey Conference (NCHC) tilt.
“It was a really good hockey game with two great teams,” ASU coach Greg Powers said.
Fresh off a road sweep, the Sun Devils returned home to face a Pioneer team that split at home last weekend against Omaha.
A pair of seniors who started in the crease. It was be round three between Denver goalie Matt Davis and Arizona State goalie Luke Pavicich.
The game started with Denver junior forward Aidan Thompson taking an interference penalty 17 seconds into the game. It was an early chance for ASU’s power play and it was one that saw sloppy passing early.
Once the Sun Devils’ top unit got set up in the offensive zone freshman forward Cullen Potter feathered a saucer pass across the ice that landed at the left-wing faceoff circle. Junior forward Cruz Lucius made no mistake as he one timed it into the net, putting his Maroon and Gold up 1-0.
“It felt good to get that off my chest but ultimately we want to win the game,” Lucius said after scoring his first goal on home ice.
Later in the first period the Sun Devils ran into penalty trouble putting the Pioneers on a five-on-three power play for 90 seconds. Arizona State killed off both penalties thanks to some huge saves from Pavicich.
“Great job by those guys especially killing of that five on three but we just had guys make some mistakes and take some stick penalties early in the game,” Powers said.
The Sun Devils took another penalty and shut down the Denver’s power play; which ranked best in the nation heading into Friday’s contest. Shortly after the penalty ended, Pioneers sophomore defenseman Garrett Brown threaded the needle on a perfect breakaway pass to junior forward Jared Wright who wristed one by Pavicich to tie the game.
The Denver piggybacked off its late first period momentum and controlled play in the second period. ASU was hemmed in its own end and were looking to break out. Sun Devils freshman defenseman Joel Kjellberg got knocked to the ice making a pass. Pioneers graduate student forward Connor Caponi fed sophomore forward Sam Harris who was streaking towards the goal and beat Pavicich on the backhand to give Denver the 2-1 lead.
Five minutes after Denver took the lead, junior forward Rieger Lorenz capitalized on a broken play and found sophomore defenseman Boston Buckberger in the slot who fired one short side to extend the Pioneer’s lead to a two-goal margin.
Arizona State needed an answer and they needed it fast. Two minutes later, the Sun Devils got what they were looking for when freshman defenseman Sam Court’s shot redirected to junior forward Charlie Schoen who sent in front to graduate student forward Ty Jackson who tipped a trickling puck past Davis to cut the Pioneer’s lead down to one.
Less than two minutes after the Jackson goal, Potter made a drop pass to Kjellberg at the blue line. The Swedish defenseman put it on net and graduate student forward Lukas Sillinger cleaned up the rebound to tie the game at 3-3.
Both teams traded chances to start the third, and ASU began to possess more of the puck. However, six and a half minutes in, a costly turnover at Denver’s blue line saw Thompson spring on a breakaway, where he slid the puck under Pavicich’s pad to put Denver up 4-3.
Another uphill battle for the was dealt to the Sun Devils as the Pioneers were showing no signs of slowing down. Pavicich continued to make key saves, this time sprawling to his right and taking the puck off the goal line to keep it a 4-3 game.
In the dying minutes of the third period, Arizona State pulled its goalie for an extra skater and turned up the heat. Denver had several attempts to clear the puck before ASU graduate student defenseman Noah Beck made a nifty maneuver to keep the puck in and found graduate student froward Artem Shlaine. The Russian was patient and sent a back-door feed to junior forward Bennet Schimek, whose stick was at the back post and tapped it in to tie the game with 48 seconds left in regulation.
“I saw Artem look across the ice and knew he would throw something on net so I moved down and he made a really nice play,” Schimek said.
The Sun Devils went back on the attack in the closing seconds of the third when Pioneers senior forward Samu Salminen took a tripping penalty. The Sun Devils started overtime on a four-on-three power play.
ASU worked the puck around on its man advantage but was unsuccessful. The possession was heavily in favor for Arizona State but that all changed as a tired Shlaine changed while Denver was on the attack, leading to a two-on-one rush. Thompson had the game on his stick and made no mistake beating Pavicich’s high glove to end the game. ASU is now 1-4 in overtime games this year.
“We just have to bury, we have certainly had our chances” Powers said.
Powers noted the differences between the games in Denver and the overtime loss.
“You have to give credit to them, their pressure made us make a lot of mistakes tonight,” Powers said.
Although the Sun Devils were able to salvage a point, the team fell to second place in the NCHC. Arizona State will look to even the two-game home series against Denver tonight at 5 p.m. MST in Tempe.
Leave a Reply