(Photo: Christian Coates/WCSN)
After a 5-3 victory Friday night, ASU would follow up with another victory, finishing off the No. 12 Minot State Beavers 4-2 at Oceanside Arena.
The Beavers came out flying with a visibly different energy level than the Sun Devils, striking first with less than 2 minutes gone in the first period. After several Sun Devils failed to clear the play out of their offensive zone, Minot State’s Jeremy Johnson corralled a bouncing puck in the slot and spun a backhander past Levin’s blocker side.
After D2 call-up Liam Pues was sent to the box for cross-checking, the Beavers kept the pressure on, sending consistent shots from the point, barely missing with two glancing off the posts.
After a successful kill, ASU forward Michael Cummings tied the game up at one. Speeding into the zone off a cross ice pass from Thomas Cooney, Cummings snapped a wrist shot just past the blue line that seemed to catch Minot goalie, Ryan Hengen, off guard.
The score would stay the same heading into the intermission break.
The start of the second showed a hungrier and more aggressive Sun Devil team as they nearly struck first just seconds after the puck dropped on the period. A scramble In the crease resulted in a disallowed goal due to the net being knocked out of place, after just 7 seconds of play.
Trading scoring chances up and down the ice with Minot State, the Devils would ultimately claim their first lead of the game at 7:31 of the period.
Charging into the offensive zone at full speed, Cooney executed a brilliant give and go with forward Connor Mailey, receiving a pass at the top of the left circle, slipping it 5 hole on Ryan Hengen as he fell to the ice.
“I just skate as fast as I can to an area and [Burkemper] usually finds me, I just had to get it on net and I was just smacking at it,” Cooney said.
The go ahead goal was Cooney’s tenth of the season, with the other assist credited to forward Chris Burkemper.
“I love playing with [Burkemper], we know where each other are, he got injured and I’m glad he’s back,” Cooney added.
Unable to build off the momentum from their new lead, ASU would be called for two penalties in a three minute span towards the end of the period. With some brilliance from Robert Levin and an ultra-aggressive penalty kill, the Sun Devils would escape their shorthanded sequence and head into the second intermission hanging onto a 2-1 lead.
With a powerplay once again to start the third period, Minot State would come up empty thanks to another effective kill by the Sun Devils.
The loss of opportunity would come back to haunt Minot State as ASU would stretch their lead to 3-1 at 12:38 of the third. Controlling the puck at the blue line, Jordan Young would send a wrist shot to the front of the net, bouncing off of Eric Rivards skate right to Liam Norris for a wide open net. With the goal, Norris improved his point per game pace on the season with 28 in 18 games.
“It was good to finally somewhat produce on the powerplay after last night, I got lucky the puck just kind of bounced to me and it was a big insurance goal,” Norris said.
With the game turning chippy, ASU would put the nail in the coffin. After a goal mouth scrum resulting from a ASU shove to Ryan Hengen, frustrations seemed to boil over for the Beavers, resulting in three players being sent to the penalty box and sending ASU to the powerplay.
Burkemper would seal the game for ASU on the man advantage, streaking down the left side and sending a shot top shelf glove side at 9:36 of the period.
A Dwight Lee goal with 2:30 to go would prove to be too late for the Beavers.
Next up, the Sun Devils take on the Illinois Fighting Illini next weekend. Catch the live broadcast at http://cronkitesports.com/live-broadcasts.
