(Photo: Sammy Nute/WCSN)
Before the puck had been dropped on Friday evening, the Arizona State Sun Devils sat at No. 39 in the PairWise rankings in a testament to a disappointing start to the season. By the end of the night, the team was celebrating a 3-2 thrilling victory over the No. 1-ranked and reigning national champion Denver Pioneers on the road.
To some, beating the top-ranked team in the nation once would be good enough on its own. However, in Greg Powers’ mind, beating No. 1 one time isn’t how you make a statement; doing it twice in a row in their own building is.
The Sun Devils (6-7-1, 3-3 NCHC) left out the theatrics this time around, riding a dominant offensive performance on the way to a 5-2 victory over the Pioneers (12-2, 2-2 NCHC) and clinching a historic road sweep.
“Just proud of our guys,” Powers said. “We’ve been through some adverse moments through the first 12 games coming in here, some of it self-inflicted. We finally got for the most part healthy and we proved that if we do things the right way we’re going to be a damn good hockey team.”
In a reverse of the previous night, both squads failed to pull ahead early for a majority of the first period due to an inability to convert on initial opportunities. Denver junior forward Aidan Thompson sending a shot wide on a breakaway was matched by ASU shooting blanks on the power play two times in a row.
The Sun Devils putting graduate forward Benji Eckerle in the penalty box on an interference call towards the end of the period meant blood was in the water. With 15 seconds left before the horn, senior forward Jack Devine immediately redirected a pass from sophomore defenseman Zeev Buium to sophomore forward Sam Harris who snuck the puck into the left corner of the net to put the Pioneers up 1-0.
Rather than allowing the bumpy start to dictate how the rest of the game would play out, ASU instead wasted no time in offering up a counterpunch.
Four minutes into the second period, Denver freshman defenseman Tory Pitner was called for a holding penalty to set up a third turn on the man advantage. 25 seconds was all it took for a one-timer from graduate defenseman Noah Beck to smash an 0-for-9 power play drought and tie the game at one.
“I thought the first period we were really good,” Powers said. “We had a lot of chances, their goalie was really good. But just how we responded in the second is so impressive. We’ve got a hell of a team. We’ve known we’ve had a hell of a team.”
The best was yet to come for the Sun Devils when they landed another direct hit midway through the period. After a defensive stop near his own net, freshman defenseman Joel Kjellberg skated up to the blue line before making a pass intended for graduate forward Lukas Sillinger. Instead, it was freshman forward Cullen Potter who took the puck for himself, cruised up to Denver senior netminder Matt Davis and buried a wrist shot to put ASU in front.
In the end, ASU’s hopes of sending shockwaves through the NCAA ice hockey world rested on the shoulders of the man who scored two goals the night before including the game-winner.
Not even a minute after taking the lead, the Sun Devils created offensive pressure in Denver’s zone that put the puck at the doorstep of junior forward Ryan Alexander. Known for his excellence at giving his teammates chances to score in front of the net, he twirled a pass to graduate forward and series hero Artem Shlaine that resulted in a backhand goal.
Even after the Pioneers responded with a goal to cut the lead back down to one, Shlaine made sure to leave no doubt. The forward took a pass from Eckerle at center ice three minutes into the third period, took on four defenders by himself, and ended up scoring his fourth goal of the series.
For good measure, junior forward Bennett Schimek later scored on an empty net to seal the win and series in favor of ASU.
There are numerous milestones you could point to in order to call this weekend of Sun Devil hockey successful: first NCHC road win and sweep; first win at Denver; earning six conference points; sweeping the No. 1 team and defending champions on the road. However, the main takeaway for Powers and company following this series may be that even after a rocky start, they now know for certain that ASU can compete with anyone this season.
“I think it’s a benchmark sweep for us and we’ll always look at it as that, but it’s really on us now moving forward to hold ourselves to this standard,” Powers said. “This is the standard. If we can do that, then we’ve got something special.”
