ASU D2 Hockey: Sun Devils close out home stand against rival NAU

(Photo: Alexis Ramanjulu/WCSN)

A pair of fights late in the game highlighted a 6-2 Sun Devils victory over the visiting Northern Arizona Icejacks. Balanced scoring and limited penalties also led to the the Sun Devil victory, putting them at 12-1 for the season.

The Sun Devils entered the game as the leaders in their conference, as ASU and NAU are No.1 and No.2 in the ACHA DII West region respectively.

ASU started off with a bang when Daniel Gowans notched his seventh goal of the season just 1:37 into the game.

Icejacks goalie Seth Kollman didn’t seem to have much of an answer the rest of the period either, as Jordan LeClair and Justin Butler each added goals of their own. His counterpart Alex Taylor got the start in goal and shut out NAU in the first period.

Penalties were also a major story in the early going. The Sun Devils racked up eight penalty minutes, while Northern Arizona picked up a whopping 16, including a 10 minute game misconduct by forward Tyler Giovannetti. Despite all this, none of ASU’s goals came on the power play or came short-handed.

A long lull in goals took place in the second quarter before ASU started the scoring with a goal from Austin Ehrlich. It was his tenth of the season, tying him with Ryan Francis for the most on the team.

It didn’t take long for the IceJacks to answer. A beautiful slap-shot from defender Dillon Benjamin got them on the board. Assisting on the goal was Daniel Park, who is the team leader in points.

It appeared that the 2nd period would end with a 4-1 score, but a mini barrage from the same Sun Devil line extended their lead to 6-1. Jordan LeClair and Preston Ames both scored goals with less than 1:30 left in play. It was LeClair’s second of the game and fifth of the season. John Randall and Wesley Starr each assisted on both of the goals.

After the lead became 6-1, LeClair and Dedrick Wiese of Northern Arizona got into a bit of a tussle, which resulted in unsportsmanlike conduct penalties for both, although the penalties for both sides were much less frequent in the second period.

The highlights of the third period  came during consecutive fights that led to a trio of ejections from both sides. Disqualified for the Icejacks were Dedrick Wiese, Ben Russell and James Takacs. Robert Granito, Daniel Gowans and Ryan Francis were all ejected for the Sun Devils.

The momentum shift only helped a small bit for the Icejacks, who were able to add a goal by Tyler Giovannetti, which lowered the Sun Devils lead to 6-2. However, they weren’t able to get any more goals, and the game ended with a 6-2 Sun Devil victory.

The matchup was the final one at Oceanside Ice Arena for the Sun Devils in 2014 calendar year. Their next matchup will be against Montana Tech on November 20th, and they finally return home on January 15th to play the Utah Utes.