(Photo Courtesy – Hailey Rogalski)
Down by two goals with just under three minutes to play at Clarkson (7-6), Arizona State men’s hockey (7-6) was unable to capitalize on a “self-made” power play and fell in game two, 5-3.
After a 2-1 loss the night before, ASU had the chance to bounce back and go 3-1 in their four-game stretch after beating No. 6 at the time the University of North Dakota before. The Sun Devils will now face No.2 Minnesota Golden Gophers, who come to town over Thanksgiving weekend and then headed to No.1 Denver Pioneers the following week, but they will have to settle for 2-2.
A game that wasn’t for the lack of chances, with two coming in the third period, found ASU unable to capitalize and unable to come back from their biggest deficit in seven games (two goals); before that, it was a 0-4 deficit at the hands for Colgate.
ASU trailed this time after two periods of play, 2-1. Both Clarkson goals came unanswered after Arizona State junior forward Dylan Jackson got the scoring started with help from brother Ty Jackson, a junior forward as well.
Mounting a slight comeback, Arizona State was able to tie the game up at 2-2 thanks to a power play goal scored by junior forward Lukas Sillinger, but Clarkson answered back with two more unanswered goals to push the game to 4-2.
Chance number one came just shy of six minutes left in the third period when sophomore forward Josh Doan “scored” to bring the game within one. The catch — Doan’s goal was initially waved off.
Arizona State was playing four-on-four with Clarkson when Doan rang a shot off the crossbar, which was ruled no goal, much to the chagrin of Doan, who all but celebrated thinking he had scored.
The 4-on-4 was also set to become an ASU power play as soon as junior defenseman Tim Lovell was set free from his two-minute interference penalty.
It was not until after the next whistle that the call was reviewed and overturned in favor of the Sun Devils. By overturning the goal, the clock resets to 5:52 to play in the third. The four-on-four was also reinstated for the eight-second, which meant ASU had another chance at the power play for 49 seconds.
With the gift of another chance on the power play while only down a goal, the Sun Devils came up empty-handed once again.
It took no longer than a minute after the power play expired for the Golden Knights to retake a two-goal lead at 5-3.
The second chance came late in the third period as well. Senior defenseman Dustyn Mcfaul laid a big open ice hit on ASUs Lovell that teammate Sillinger did not take too kindly to, promptly coming to the defense of Lovell by roughing up Mcfaul, which led to multiple other Sun Devils and Golden Knights getting into it as well.
After everything was cleaned up and penalties were dished out, it was going to be a four-on-four with Mcfaul getting a five-minute major and game misconduct, along with teammate Ayrton Martino being sent to the box for rouging. ASU’s Lovell and Sillinger were given two-minute penalties for roughing and cross-checking, respectively.
The game finally resumed at the 2:06 mark of the third period. Head coach Greg Powers elected to pull sophomore goalie Ty Semptimphelter to play five-on-four instead of four-on-four. With the major penalty to Mcfaul, ASU was at no risk of not having some type of man advantage for the rest of the game. Powers expedited this by pulling Semptimphelter, allowing his team to play the full two minutes and six seconds with a man advantage instead of four-on-four for two minutes then a power play for the final eight seconds.
If the Sun Devils scored before the six-second mark, they would remain on the man advantage, so it was a no-brainer, and when down two goals a chance, Powers was willing to roll the dice.
However, it was to no avail, and the Sun Devils could not generate any goals and ended up falling to the Golden Knights 5-3.
