(Photo: Marina Williams)
TEMPE — For a game that’s ultimately decided by who can score the most before the final horn sounds, puck luck often ends up as the deciding factor in hockey. Arizona State received a miraculous bounce its way Friday night in forcing an unlikely tie and shootout win, but the very next evening showed the Sun Devils that luck rarely remains in one direction for long.
Another potential come-from-behind effort eventually stalled out as ASU (3-6-1, 1-2-1 NCHC) failed to have opportunities both in-and-out of its control fall its way in a 3-1 series finale defeat to No. 20 Colorado College Saturday evening.
“They capitalized on a couple of mistakes,” head coach Greg Powers said. “It was an evenly-played game, and we just lost it.”
Powers’ decision to stick with the hot hand of freshman goaltender Samuel Urban after shutting out the Tigers for four straight periods the night before paid off in spades. The Slovakia native turned his fourth start in between the pipes into one of his best as a Sun Devil, putting up 32 saves and a .941 save percentage.
However, whatever chance ASU had at turning netminder into an advantage soon disappeared as a result of an otherworldly performance from Tigers’ senior goaltender Kaidan Mbereko to the tune of a save percentage of .972. The two netminders combined for 67 saves on 71 shots on goal, and in the end, the Sun Devils were never able to recover from the lack of support on offense.
“We scored one goal,” Powers said. “You’re not going to win many games scoring one goal. (Urban) theoretically played well enough to get a shutout too.”
Mbereko pitching a shutout in the first period despite ASU’s 12 shots on goal and domination of puck possession set the stage for a tripping penalty called on senior defenseman Tucker Ness during the second to tip the scales in Colorado College’s favor.
After a successful shift on the penalty kill from the Sun Devils within the first two minutes, a second chance led to freshman left wing Tomas Mrsic finding himself in the perfect spot when a deflection off Urban’s pad gave him the puck by the left faceoff circle all alone, where he buried it to break the stalemate.
The Tigers took full advantage of the floodgates beginning to open less than two minutes later on a snipe from the blue line off the stick of sophomore left defenseman Fisher Scott that ricocheted off junior defenseman Anthony Dowd’s stick to go up by two. Once again, Colorado College made sure to score its goals in bunches, and it would be up to ASU to repeat playing catch-up.
While the Sun Devils were outshot 16-11 in the second period, they were also handed two opportunities on the power play. In the end, though, all that the team could muster was eight missed shots, one block, and zero pucks in the net.
“I think we could have been better,” sophomore forward Cullen Potter said. “But Coach Powers said it; I think we also gained a lot of momentum, too. Just getting shots on net and getting a bunch. Although we didn’t score, I think we generated a lot of momentum for us, which is really important on the power play.”
A spark of hope flickered in the darkness when Potter charged into the opposing zone with possession before quickly firing a pass to freshman forward Jack Beck, who launched a wrist shot past Mbereko to cut the deficit down to one. The former AHL and ECHL player not only scored a goal in both games against Colorado College, but has found the net in three of his first four games in the maroon and gold.
With time whittling down to just 11 minutes remaining, lightning appeared to have struck Mullett Arena twice. A shot from sophomore defenseman Brasen Boser turned into a deflection goal from senior forward Cruz Lucius that tied the game and sent the crowd into a familiar frenzy.
That was until the goal was almost immediately waived off on the ruling that the puck touched Lucius’s hand. To rub salt in the wound, Powers could not challenge the call since his assertion of goaltender interference on Colorado College’s first score back in the second period was unsuccessful.
“I don’t think he made a motion,” Powers said. “I think it just hit him, but it went off his hand and in. So it maybe looked like he tried to direct it with his hand, but I don’t think he did.”
The Sun Devils still had 11 minutes to play with to put a game-tying goal, but ultimately, nothing ever materialized. Even with 51% of the faceoffs in the Tigers’ own zone, every single one of ASU’s 13 shots on goal found its way into the glove of Mbereko. The team even had another chance on the man advantage that became three consecutive misses.
By the time sophomore right wing Gavin Lindberg sank an empty netter between the pipes with 1:09 remaining, any chance at repeating the same magic trick vanished. This marks the sixth straight time ASU has lost this season when the decision to pull the goalie is made.
The two points earned from the shootout win on Friday help keep the Sun Devils above the Tigers by one point in the standings and just two points out of second place from their current position at fifth. However, the in-conference gauntlet delivers ASU a road trip to first-place No. 8 North Dakota next weekend.
While it’s true that the puck luck that was in the team’s hands one night ago ended up on the opposing bench, that doesn’t bring any closure to another close defeat in a season full of them.
“I mean, it was right there,” Powers said. “I think that was the difference in the game. It was a special teams battle, obviously, and then they got a bounce. You got a bounce last night that ended up on (Schimek’s) stick to tie it, and they got a bounce tonight off our guy’s stick that ended up in the back of our net.”
