TEMPE – When the game is on the line, you need your most prominent players to step up and show why they can be the best on the team, and for Arizona State hockey, senior forward Matthew Kopperud showed up big in the first two nights of the Sun Devils’ season.
After a back-and-forth contest, ASU (2-0-0) fought back from a one-goal deficit going into the third period to win 4-2 over No. 15 Merrimack (0-2-0), hanging three unanswered goals on the Warriors late in the third period.
Going into the third, Arizona State needed something big. Being down a goal against a ranked opponent is never easy – and Saturday was proof of that – but ASU found a way to fight back. After not scoring at all the night before, Merrimack found the back of the net just before the halfway point of the second period. It wasn’t a pretty goal, rather a greasy one off a rebound from junior goaltender TJ Semptimphelter. However, it took exactly a minute for the Sun Devils to answer back via a beautiful backhanded shot from senior forward Ryan O’Reilly that sailed over the right shoulder of Merrimack’s junior goaltender Hugo Ollas. As luck would have it, ASU could not keep the game tied as junior forward Matt Copponi gave Merrimack the lead again off another rebound.
“Just to have belief.” That was the message ASU head coach Greg Powers said to his team heading into the third period.
“The entire preseason, all you hear is them say how tight-knit they are and how well they gel off the ice in the room, and those are the moments where that has to pay off,” Powers said. “The inner belief and support each other and belief that we can get it done, and they dug deep, and the power play came through for us huge.”
Through a game and two periods, the power play had been held at bay until the third period tonight, when ASU was able to break through. It all started with senior forward Lukas Sillinger. Sillinger sat backdoor on Ollas and buried a rebound chance off a shot from Kopperud for the tying goal in his 100th game, but it didn’t end there.
After tying it up, ASU got a chance late once more on the power play, thanks to a bench minor by Merrimack for too many men on the ice. With the top power-play unit on the ice, senior defenseman Tim Lovell and Kopperud finally hit their stride.
“Timmy sucked [Merrimack] over and zipped it across, and there was a seem for Kopp, and he hit his spot,” Powers said. “He finally hit the puck like we know he can, and we won a game.”
A power play that was too cute and too pretty to start the year finally found some momentum as Lovell fed a one-timer pass cross-ice to a Kopperud, who was waiting on the right circle to pounce, tying Kopperud with Johnny Walker for the most power-play goals in program history (25).
“[Lovell’s] such a good player, too,” Kopperud said. “So you sort of have to let him do what he wants as well, but he figured it out, sorta at the end, and it worked.”
While Kopperud may have been the stand-out offensively late, it was the fourth line that once again generated scoring chances for ASU in the entirety of the game, and it was evident with the one goal from O’Reilly in the second to tie the game.
“Well, I mean [graduate forward Brian Chambers] really made that play happen,” Powers said. “It was in the middle of a change, by re-loading and getting a turnover and getting it to [O’Reilly], but they just work. They’re just a good old-fashioned, hard-working line, and they did a hell of a job and really, really helped us get two wins this weekend.”
To find the last time the Sun Devils started the year 2-0, you would have to go all the way back to the 2018-19 season when they opened up the year at home with a series win against Alaska Fairbanks and a pair of shutouts. Compared to last year, where Arizona State opened the season 0-2 on the road to Minnesota Duluth, this year is off to a better start.
“The last time, 2-0, we made the tournament,” Powers said, referencing ASU’s 2019 tournament run in which it lost to No. 2 Quinnipiac 2-1. “As an independent, every win matters, and to get two against a team that’s going to get a lot of wins this season – which Merrimack will, you’ll see that – it’ll be the gift that keeps on giving. Last season was frustrating because we thought we played really well at Duluth and probably deserved to win especially the overtime loss, but those are the breaks. Last year you started 1-3, and 2-4, now we’re 2-0. It’s a lot easier to play downhill because wins are hard to come by in college hockey, and we have a really good team now coming in. Next weekend in Northern Michigan, who really likes to get after it and score goals – we’re going to have our hands full.”
