(Photo:Allyson Cummings/WCSN)
The No. 1 Arizona State Sun Devils took the first game of the Cactus cup over the No. 22 Arizona Wildcats with the score of 7-0.
Even without six of their starters, ASU looked to be fine without them. Freshman forward Mak Barden started off the scoring frenzy with a unassisted goal in the first four minutes of the game. Not long after forward Patrick Yudez scored two goals to put them up 3 – 0. The Sun Devils would extend their lead to 4 – 0 to finish the the first period, as Arizona had only two shots on goal their offensive struggles became apparent.
“Finally starting to get under my feet,” Yudez said. “I’m feeling more confident and I got a few good bounces today, and sometimes it just works out that way.
With all the momentum on the Sun Devil’s side, one would think that the goals would keep on rolling. However, that was not the case in the second period as the Wildcats changed their goalies from Austin Wilson to the normal starter Garrett Patrick. Patrick was perfect in the second as he let up no goals, but received no help from his offense as they still couldn’t put numbers on the scoreboard.
“In the second period I thought we were really bad,” head coach Greg Powers said. “We got away from what was working, then we got back to what was working in the third. We can’t play 40 minutes.”
It was the same story for the Wildcats in the third as ASU goalie Robert Levin played lights out and earned his eighth shut-out of the season. The Sun Devils began to take an offensive charge once again as Yudez tacked on his third goal of the night and his first hat-trick of the season along with forward Davis Norris who put up two goals to put the final stamp on the game, ending the contest with a score of 7 – 0.
“We played exactly the way we wanted to,” Powers said. “We executed the game plan. Tomorrow we just have to play 60 minutes.”
The second game of the two game series and final home game for ASU will be played in the same place at the same time, in Tempe Arizona at 7:30 p.m.
