(Photo:Allyson Cummings/WCSN)
“We expect to sweep U of A, anything less is not acceptable,” Coach Powers said after the Arizona State hockey team raised their championship banner and defeated archrival No. 18 Arizona 3-0 Saturday night to complete their weekend sweep.
With many of the championship team present, it was almost redemption for losing to Arizona on ASU’s senior night last year. After a chippy game Friday night, the Sun Devils looked to be in control all night. With many first period chances, a lane opened up and Sean Murphy scored from an assist by Alex Temby.
“I think we had a lot of good chances. I loved Murph, Cummings, and Blessing tonight, that was our best line,” Coach Powers said.
Arizona came out aggressive in the second period with forward Sean Gruenhagen called for unsportsmanlike conduct and hooking. ASU took advantage of being a man up and Connor Schmidt slapped in the puck from the blue line with help from Chris Burkemper for the power play goal.
After expressing his previous disappointment with the power play and penalty kill units, Coach Powers was impressed with their play tonight.
“It’s not always about scoring on the power play, it’s about sustaining momentum and breaking them down,” he said.
It was back and forth in the third period until Sean Murphy knocked in an unassisted shorthanded goal after Kyle Bowen was called for elbowing. The Wildcats weren’t able to overcome the deficit as ASU claimed a 3-0 victory.
“I’ll take the win, it’s a massive improvement over last night,” Powers said.
Goalie Robert Levin notched his second shutout of the season and thanked the penalty kill unit for their help.
“Penalty kill units did great and there were no second chance opportunities,” Levin said.
Powers felt that while they did play great tonight, there is always room for improvement.
“We certainly can play much better, we haven’t even peaked yet and that’s good. You don’t want to peak in October, you want to peak in March,” he said.
Arizona State will have two tough tests as they go on the road next weekend to face No. 3 Oklahoma and No.5 Central Oklahoma. They’ll be back at Oceanside on October 23rd for a one-game series with N0.8 Liberty.
You can follow Zuriel on Twitter @zurieloving for live tweets of every ASU home game.
