(Photo: Joey Plishka/WCSN)
TEMPE – Arizona State Men’s Hockey fell to Denver 6-2 on Friday night. The Pioneers scored four goals in the final 20 minutes of the game to outlast the Sun Devils.
DU got several chances off counter-attack opportunities, which it capitalized on.
“That team is really skilled and really good,” ASU head coach Greg Powers said. “When you give up that many odd-man rushes from mismanaging the puck, that’s what is going to happen.”
Despite ASU’s puck struggles, it put up a great fight against one of the top teams in the country.
“Scoring chances were probably equal,” Powers said. “They were opportunistic. They finished. We didn’t.”
The Sun Devils amassed 33 shots compared to the Pioneers’ 29. Denver sunk six of those in the net, meanwhile, ASU couldn’t find the back of the net until the third period.
ASU also won 35 face-offs compared to Denver’s 45.
The Sun Devils struggled off power-play chances on Friday, going 0-4 on such chances.
“It hit a little bit of a lull,” Powers said. “It carried us there for a while… Guys got to get their swagger back.”
It’s the fourth-straight game without a power-play goal for the Sun Devils. It likely would have served ASU well to execute off those chances given the plethora of penalty time.
In the second period, ASU and DU combined for 38 minutes spent in the penalty box – an almost dumbfounding number given that the length of a period is only 20 minutes.
In total, there were nine power-play opportunities created, and the Pioneers notched two goals off those chances.
While ASU struggled to play a man-up against DU, it did manage to score a short-handed goal with 2:15 left to play in the third period. Senior forward Jordan Sandhu scored his first career short-handed goal and his first of the season.
Senior forward Colin Theisen scored the game’s third goal of the third period and the Sun Devils’ first of the night.
The final frame was action-filled. A 6-2 final started at 2-0 at the beginning of the third. The Pioneers scored four goals and the Sun Devils scored twice in the period.
“I thought that both teams were really good defensively in the first two periods,” Powers said. “It opened up there in the third.”
Powers said he wants his squad to manage the puck better and for junior goaltender Ben Kraws to make more saves.
“He was just ok,” Powers said of Kraws. “He made some big saves, but to beat Denver you’re probably going to have to make more saves than that.”
