ASU D1 Hockey: New faces help seal Sun Devil victory over Rams

(Photo: Ross Leviton/WCSN)

A day after Ryan Belonger’s overtime goal gave Arizona State a 2-1 victory over Colorado, the Sun Devils obliterated the visiting Colorado State Rams 8-0 on Halloween night. Colorado State (9-3) is known for its physicality, and was hoping to avenge their shootout loss last season against the banged up Sun Devils.

The first period was dominated by the Sun Devils. With a handful of starters on the shelf for the night, head coach Greg Powers mix-up of the lines reaped results. Sophomore defenseman Troy Hoban who participated in his third game this season, sliced the neutral zone with a pass to Chris Blessing who took advantage of a clear path to beat Ram goalie Alex Steidler. Ed McGovern continued his solid offensive season from the backline by drawing first blood off of a Tommy Cooney faceoff win just under ten minutes into the game.

“It was great to see the guys responding to easily our worst effort last night,” said Powers. “ We went and played the best sixty minutes we’ve had all season,” said Powers.

Both the Sun Devils and the Rams came out with intense physicality. Jared Morris laid the lumber on Colorado State’s skaters and Chandler Yoder was getting his licks on the Sun Devils. Late in the period, a huge hit from Jarrod Levos jarred the puck loose for another newcomer Mak Barden to tickle the twine and put Arizona State up by three.

The chippiness continued in the second period. Both teams’ skaters were taking extra shots and getting tangled up with each other. Colorado State was looking for something to get them fired up and back into the game, and their aggression was equally matched by Arizona State. This lead to an apparent shoulder injury for Daniel Mastrosic, who took a big hit in the Colorado State corner.

The Sun Devils turned up their forecheck, making it difficult for Colorado State to get the puck out of their zone.

“It’s supposed to be that way,” said Powers. “It doesn’t always run that way but they seemed to have trouble with our pressure.”

Midway through the period, McGovern knocked down the puck and was able to hold it inside of the blue line and dished it to Blessing, who set Liam Norris up for the goal. Shortly after, a goal by Belonger increased his point-per-game streak to five.

Norris added another goal in the waning moments of the second by tapping the puck in during a scrum in front of the net.

“I like playing with Rivard and Blessing,” said Norris. “I think we feed pretty well off of each other. Rivard was playing hard knocking it in the corners so it makes it easy to play with a guy like that.”

The final period featured more of the same. Colorado State could not muster up enough shots and scoring opportunities to keep the game competitive. McGovern found the back of the net again and Kyle Bowen added a goal of his own to bring the score up to its final tally.

“It was great to see them show good character. We’re proud of them but we have got more work tomorrow,” said Powers.

The puck drops tomorrow at 7:30 again at Oceanside Arena. Catch the live broadcast at http://cronkitesports.com/live-broadcast.

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