After winning its third consecutive Desert Hockey Classic title, Arizona State hockey (11-11-1, 4-6-1 NCHC) resumed its National Collegiate Hockey Conference (NCHC) slate, hosting Miami University (12-7-2, 3-6-2 NCHC) for a two-game series at Mullett Arena.
Miami (Ohio) sophomore goaltender Matteo Drobac’s 37-save performance propelled his side to a 2-1 overtime victory on Friday night. The Canadian held the college hockey’s highest-scoring line to a single point in the win.
“Look, we got our chances. We feel like we controlled the game’s possession, chances, everything,” ASU coach Greg Powers said. “We had a lid on the net tonight. It wasn’t going our way tonight.”
The Maroon and Gold tried opening the lid but went scoreless on five power-play opportunities. On the flip side, the Sun Devils killed off all four RedHawk man-advantage chances.
Powers’ power play, which ranked 10th best coming into Friday’s contest, lost a key piece in freshman forward Jack Beck, who recently had season-ending surgery.
“It was good special teams from that standpoint (the penalty kill), but the power play was about as bad as it’s been all year,” Powers said.
Arizona State’s first power-play unit, consisting of the nation’s top point collectors in senior forwards Cruz Lucius (33) and Bennett Schimek (31), failed to find the scoresheet. The center of its line, sophomore forward Cullen Potter, assisted on the Sun Devils’ lone goal.
ASU sophomore defenseman Sam Court broke the shutout with 2:52 remaining in regulation. His seeing-eye slap shot from the point made its way through traffic to beat Drobac.
“I mean, especially in the moment, it was awesome for him,” Sun Devil sophomore defenseman Brasen Boser said of Court. “He’s kind of been up and down this year, and I think the last couple games, he’s really been finding his game again.”
For Miami (Ohio), freshman forward Kocha Delic became the team’s new leading scorer, assisting on both goals. Sophomore forward Casper Nassen drew first blood late with under four minutes left in the second period. The Boston Bruins’ prospect roofed the puck upstairs above Arizona State senior goalie Connor Hasley’s glove side.
In overtime, RedHawk freshman forward David Deputy beat Hasley in the same spot, evening the all-time series to 3-3-1 against the Sun Devils.
“We just (have) got to rely on the rest of our team, like they’re high-point scores, but you can’t win in college hockey if you have one line,” Boser said on what needs to change. “Not that the other lines played bad tonight, but we got to rely on four lines.”
Miami (Ohio) improves to a 9-0-2 record when leading after two periods and now sits one point behind St. Cloud State for second-to-last place in the NCHC.
ASU was over the .500 mark for the first time all season heading into the two-game series. Now, Powers’ squad will look to regroup and win Game 2 on Saturday night, with puck drop set for 5 p.m. MST.
“I was proud of the guys for tying it up. We got a point tonight, that’s the way we have to look at it, and we got to come back tomorrow and hopefully get three (points) and win four out of six.”
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