TEMPE — Similar to Friday night’s game, No. 14 Arizona State hockey held a lead heading into the third period on Saturday night’s game.
However, another trend continued for the Sun Devils: the inability to close out games. No. 5 Penn State potted another four-goal third period, handing ASU a 4-2 loss.
“Like I said last night, we need our veteran guys to step up and either finish off games and manage situations the right way, or they’re not going to be out there in big situations,” ASU coach Greg Powers said.
While ‘veteran guys’ in senior forwards Bennett Schimek and Cruz Lucius delivered the first two goals for the Maroon and Gold, the team struggled to play a full 60 minutes in the two-game series. The Sun Devils scored five second-period goals against the Nittany Lions throughout Friday and Saturday.
On the flip side, Arizona State allowed a four-goal third period on back-to-back nights, while scoring no goals.
One of those big situations Powers alluded to came later in the third period when junior defenseman Anthony Dowd took an elbowing penalty.
“Then one of our oldest, our oldest D (defenseman), who’s a captain, takes a stupid penalty with under three minutes,” Powers said of Dowd.
The penalty opened the door for the Nittany Lions’ power play to go to work. Freshman forward Gavin McKenna broke the tie, scoring his first collegiate goal and then slipping off his right glove to taunt ASU with a forks down celebration.
The circle-to-circle pass from junior defenseman Mac Gadowsky allowed McKenna to let go a one-time blast into the back of the net.
THERE IT IS 🚨
— NHL (@NHL) October 5, 2025
GAVIN MCKENNA HAS HIS FIRST COLLEGE GOAL!
🇺🇸: NHL Network
🌎: NHL YouTube ➡️ https://t.co/bVKUopZKup pic.twitter.com/2ycuLyOWIl
Several chants of overrated broke out from Arizona State’s student section before McKenna’s marker.
“I heard the boos when I got to touch the puck, and that was fun,” McKenna said after Friday night’s win. “Playing in a crowd like that, it’s easy to get up for a game like this.”
Meanwhile, the Sun Devil power play went a combined one-for-12 over two games. For a man advantage that ranked at the top of college hockey, operating at a 29.6 percent last season, Powers credited the struggles to a lack of killer instinct.
One bright spot for the Maroon and Gold was the play of senior goaltender Connor Hasley. The Bentley transfer made 82 saves across two games, giving ASU a fighting chance in each game.
“The silver lining is that’s as good of a team as you’re gonna see all year, right?” Powers said of Penn State. “And, on paper, they’re arguably the most talented team in the country, right?”
The Sun Devils host the Ice Breaker Tournament next week on Oct. 9 and 10 at Mullett Arena. The four-team tournament includes Notre Dame, No. 13 Quinnipiac, Alaska-Fairbanks and Arizona State.
Before then, the Sun Devils will have to regroup. Still, Powers believes in the roster he’s created.
“We can clearly play with anybody, but we’re beyond moral victories here, and I don’t remember the last time we blew a lead going in the third, let alone two in a row over the course of the weekend. So our guys got to dig out, dig deep and figure it out. We get a long season from us.”
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