(Photo: Noah Furtado/WCSN)
TEMPE – Just seconds after he might have been labeled the hero for Arizona State Men’s Hockey on Friday night, Tim Theocharidis was the source of groans, sighs and simultaneous gazes of bewilderment.
The senior defenseman’s goal from the blue line put ASU up 3-1 with 16:28 left in the second period against Bemidji State, an impressive lead against the No. 20 ranked team in the country that defeated ASU 4-3 on Wednesday night.
But seconds later, ASU’s hopes at the upset win became closer to being shattered.
Theocharidis leveled a Beaver into a glass pane near the blue line in ASU’s defensive zone, which promptly disintegrated into shards and resulted in a 29 minute delay. Neither team warmed up prior to the resumption of the game.
“‘Don’t let it kill what we did,’” ASU head coach Greg Powers said of his message to the Sun Devils during the delay. “We were feeling really good and just popped two [goals], so that was the message.”
Senior forward Colin Theisen added: “Breaks like that are all mental. You take 20-30 minutes off, you have to stay in it mentally. Whoever does that best comes out on top.”
Despite the less than ideal delay, ASU held strong for the 6-4 win over Bemidji State. Junior goaltender Ben Kraws had 23 saves.
“That was a must-win,” Powers said. “That was a gut-check tonight. I thought it was overall our best 60 minute effort. We were really good tonight.”
Bemidji State overcame a sluggish start out of the delay and got back in the game after senior center Owen Sillinger scored with 8:37 left in the period, cutting ASU’s lead to 3-2.
Shortly after though, the Sun Devils responded with a goal of their own after a puck squirted past Bemidji State sophomore goaltender Gavin Enright off of the faceoff. The score, which gave ASU a 4-2 lead with 8:15 left that it never gave up, was awarded to freshman forward Josh Doan.
“We had chances in the other game too,” Theisen said. “I think it’s just bearing down on those chances and if you play hard, it doesn’t matter who the other team is.”
The wild second period was not the only chaos present on Friday night. Just 16 seconds into the game, ASU freshman forward Jack Jensen delivered a massive hit on Bemidji State senior forward Alex Ierullo, which was reviewed and ended up giving the Beavers a power play.
‘“Our guys finally played pissed off,” Powers said.
Bemidji State wasted no time taking advantage though. Twelve seconds in, a rush by the Beavers resulted in a wicked shot fired at Kraws, which ricoheted off his pads and ended up meeting the stick of Bemidji State sophomore forward Lukas Sillinger, who directed the puck over Kraws’ right shoulder to make it 1-0 Beavers with 19:32 left in the first period.
While it seemed like delivering hits was each teams’ goal after the leveling of Ierullo, ASU got an two-versus-two rush with the Beavers and tied the score up quickly, as senior forward Sean Dhooghe crossed Enright in front of the net to tie the game at one.
After the chaotic start, both teams simmered for the rest of the period. The Sun Devils had two power play opportunities, but failed to capitalize on both of them. ASU finished the game 0-6 up a man.
“[Bemidji State] had a really good kill,” Powers said. “They were isolating [sophomore forward Matthew] Kopperud pretty good.
“The power play is not going to be perfect. It was damn near perfect as it pertains to how a power play [tends] to go through the first 13 games.”
As time wound down in the first though, ASU was granted another man advantage, and took 58 seconds of it into the first intermission. When the second period began, the Sun Devils came out ablaze, and subsequently got a puck past Enright just after the power play expired thanks to a goal by Theisen, who gave the Sun Devils a 2-1 lead.
In the third period, ASU extended its lead to 5-2 after an even strength goal by sophomore forward Ryan O’Reilly. Around four minutes later, Bemidji State added a goal to cut the lead to 5-3. ASU seemed to seal the game with 2:11 left with a penalty-awarded goal to make it 6-3, but Bemidji State added a power play goal with 1:34 left to make it 6-4.
The must win aspect of Friday night’s game that Powers referred to is seemingly hard to disagree with. A loss would have made it four in a row for the Sun Devils, and dropped their record to two games below .500. Additionally, Powers made the unordinary and seemingly stunning decision to change ASU’s captains during the Thanksgiving Day break – two players who had their jerseys altered included fifth year seniors and program strongholds Johnny Walker and Jacob Wilson.
A loss following the change could have immediately questioned the effectiveness of the decision.
“I thought our leaders were incredible tonight,” Powers said without mentioning the change of captaincy. “All of our upperclassmen set the table.”
Theisen, who is now wearing the ‘C’ on his jersey, agreed.
“We’ve got a lot of good leaders on this team,” he said.
ASU still has four home games in a row upcoming, which could be a big break for the Sun Devils, who are still far behind where they expected they’d be at this point in the season.
“Now we’ve got to go,” Powers said.
