(Photo Courtesy – Xavier Litman)
Going up against the No. 2 team in the country is no easy task for any team but playing them close is even harder.
The No.2 Minnesota Golden Gophers (11-4-0) made their first trip in team history to Tempe to face the Arizona State Sun Devils (7-7-0) for a two-game set. The Gophers took game one by a final score of 3-2, but ASU outshot the Gophers 30-24.
“When you hold that team to 24 shots, I thought defensively the effort was really good,” head coach Greg Powers said after the game. “That’s now six out of the last seven games we held out opponents to under 30; it’s a winning recipe; we’ll start scoring. It’ll happen, we just got to keep pushing.”
After dropping the weekend series last week, ASU was going to have to be almost perfect if they wanted a shot at beating the Gophers. While the Sun Devils outshot the Gophers 30 to 24, they couldn’t capitalize on the chances and finish when needed.
“I’m really happy with how our team played,” head coach Greg Powers said after the game. “I think our guys played really well. I’m proud of them. They battled really hard. That’s an unbelievably good team.”
Battle hard they did. The start felt very reminiscent of Vegas, while the Sun Devils didn’t look quite as caught off guard and flat-footed as they did to start in Vegas, they did allow two goals to be scored.
Jaxon Nelson, the senior forward from Magnolia, Minnesota, got the game’s first goal on the power play for Minnesota.
The second goal came at full strength of a tic-tac-toe play when senior forward Bryce Brodzinski made scoring goals in hockey look easy, skillfully netting a beauty of a pass from junior forward captain Brock Faber.
Unlike Vegas, the Sun Devils did not score in the first period.
“We never lacked belief on our bench, even down two. We had been there against North Dakota; then I thought it was an opportunist two nothing led by them (the Gophers)…but we couldn’t find the equalizer.”
The second period was a different story and a different-looking Sun Devils team.
Sophomore goaltender Ty Semptimphelter had helped keep it a 2-0 game early, making two big saves and winding up almost behind his net, but the Gophers could not put the biscuit in the basket. Thanks to Semptimphelter and his teammates batting away anything that came near.
“He was good. He made probably four or five really big saves for us to help us in the game. He made a huge save down 2-0 that allowed us to stay in it. They go up 3-0 there it’s probably game over, so he did his part.”
That sequence of events got the Sun Devils going because not even two minutes later, Junior forward Dylan Jackson finally got them on the board in the second, tipping in a shot from junior defenseman Tim Lovell.
It was off to the races after that, with chance after chance, but the Sun Devils could not get anything more to go their way.
The third period started all Sun Devils again until the Phoenix Coyotes draft pick, freshman forward Logan Cooley, pulled off the “Michigan” to secure the game-winning goal putting the Gophers up 3-1.
“To be able to pull that off in this environment, and it was the winning goal, is pretty impressive.”
Freshman forward Ryan Alexander brought the game with one once again by getting to the front of the net and battling to find the rebounds, but ASU could not tie it.
“It’s how you have to score against teams like this,” Powers commented in reference to getting guys deep and into the blue paint. “You just have to own the blue paint and win the blue paint.”
One thing that didn’t capitalize for the Sun Devils was their power play going 0/2 tonight against the Gophers.
“Tonight, it was disappointing, it could have tied it up in the second there, and they had a pretty sloppy run at it in the first. Guys think it needs to be a little tenser, passes going through sticks, and it just needs to be more tense. Just because you have one more player on the ice doesn’t mean you can let up.”
While the team may have suffered a loss at the hands of the No.2 team in the nation theirs still another game to be played, that’s the beauty of college hockey; Games are typically a two-game series.
“We know we can play against them. Jackson said. “That’s what we found out tonight, so just going into the game with confidence.”
“We were good on the forecheck, and the positive thing is we had our chances, so we just gotta bury them tomorrow.”
