(Photo via/Xavier Litman/WCSN)
After a historic home opener only a night ago, Arizona State Men’s Hockey (2-4-0) split the series with Colgate (1-3-0) after a 4-0 loss in game two.
The highly anticipated and pompous home opening series now leaves a sour taste in the month of the Sun Devil players, coaches, and fans. A series that many people thought the Sun Devils could sweep winds up as another game that could be looked at on the calendar come playoff time if Arizona State finds themselves on the couch.
The only bright spot in a disappointing game for the Sun Devils was sophomore goalie Tj Semptimphelter. Semptiphelter, while allowing four goals, kept the Sun Devils in the game at only four, stopping 38 of the whooping 42 shots he faced, sometimes with little help defensively.
The only big blemish that Semptimphelter would want back came as the first goal. A misplayed puck at the circles allowed sophomore forward Ryan McGuire to have an empty net burying the biscuit despite an attempt from sophomore forward Josh Doan’s attempt to stop the puck.
“He (Semptimphelter) was good,” head coach Greg Powers said. “Obviously, I think he wants that first one back, but he was due for one of those; it was just (kind of) a fluky puck touch by him…he’s been really good for us, and we’re not going to let that one beat us, and that’s the one that actually beat us. You know, at the end of the day, we’ve got to figure some things out to generate more and get more pucks and bodies at the net.”
And generating more couldn’t be farther from the truth. The Sun Devils had a 5-on-3 at one point during the second period, only down by two goals at the time, and did nothing with it.
ASU had no flow during the second period taking three penalties and coming out behind 2-0 after two.
“Especially that second period, it was a really tough period to get a flow in with the game. There was just no flow to the game. I think we had three in the second period against us, and when you got to kill six minutes of a period, it’s tough to get into a flow and get a rhythm, and we never found the rhythm tonight because of it.”
The wheels came off in the third period, however, as the Sun Devils allowed the Raiders to score two more goals, one of them coming on the power play.
Even an overturned goal couldn’t get the spark lit under the Sun Devils.
The goal in question was scored to make it 3-0 but was challenged by the Sun Devils for offsides, a challenge that Powers won, making the game 2-0 again.
Energy heightened for a bit until the Raiders quieted the crowd and the Sun Devils with the third goal from senior forward Colton Young.
After that, emotions started to set in as the Sun Devils played the body and took unnecessary penalties. Both teams were assessed minors for roughing. Shortly after, junior Lukas Sillinger took an unnecessary roughing penalty to make it a 4-on-3.
It was only a matter of time until Colgate capitalized on a power play, and that they did. Right as the double minors expired, sophomore forward Alex DiPaolo netted and tipped in the fourth and final goal off a shot from sophomore forward Nic Belpedio.
“I think our guys they just want to get a little too cute with it. They want to go east, west, they want to make nice sauce touch passes, they want to make everything so pretty – that not how you win. We’ve got to funnel pucks to the net, get bodies to the net, and we didn’t do that tonight.”
Arizona State will welcome Colorado College to Tempe next weekend; the first game is Friday, October 21.
