ASU Men’s Hockey: Sun Devils lose 5-3, swept by No. 1 Mavericks

(Photo: Matt Venezia/WCSN)

Arizona State Men’s Hockey lost to the Minnesota State Mavericks 5-3 on Saturday night. The No. 1 ranked team in the country outshot ASU 47-24, led by a second-period shooting fest from the Mavericks.

Minnesota State racked up 23 shots in the middle period, which gave them plenty of zone time and helped them gain momentum.

“Just another bad second period,” ASU head coach Greg Powers said. “Took a few penalties to start it, and they just played downhill on us.”

ASU virtually had back-to-back-to-back penalties, featuring freshman defenseman Ty Murchison getting called for cross-checking twice in the span of a minute.

“When you get six straight minutes on the kill against that team, that’s what is going to happen,” Powers said. “Another second period got away.”

Powers noted that mismanaging the puck led to costly mistakes which inevitably cost ASU the game. The Mavericks found lots of zone time and power-play opportunities in the second period on behalf of those miscues.

“You can’t make mistakes against a team that good,” Powers said.

ASU is really good on the kill when it “kills it up ice,” Powers said.

That didn’t seem to occur on Saturday.

He added: “When we’re frustrating them, and it gives our bench energy, but they were buzzing.”

Despite scoring just one power-play goal, the Mavericks kept the puck in their offensive third of the ice when they played a man-up.

Minnesota State scored four consecutive goals before freshman forward Josh Doan scored two for ASU in the third period. Doan put the Sun Devils within a goal of tying the game at 4-4 with a little over a minute to play. With 15 seconds left, however, junior forward Ryan Sandelin put it away for the Mavericks. He scored an empty-net goal to put Minnesota State up 5-3.

“I’m proud of our guys for not throwing in the towel,” Powers said. “We had over a minute to tie it. We felt good.”

In the first and last periods, ASU kept pace with the Mavericks. It boasted 11 and seven shots in the first and third frames, respectively, compared to Minnesota State’s 12 shots through those minutes.

The Sun Devils also scored one goal off of five power-play chances in those periods, whereas the Mavericks went to the box just once throughout the entirety of the second period.

ASU played its best frame in the first period. Senior forward Jack Becker scored a power-play goal 20 seconds before intermission to give the Sun Devils their only lead of the night.

“We won the period,” Powers said. “They came out hard. Kraw Daddy [ASU junior goaltender Ben Kraws] was really good in net.”

The Sun Devils have three series’ left in the regular season, with two of them at Oceanside Ice Arena in Tempe. For ASU to have any chance at making the NCAA Tournament, it likely needs to win out against Alaska Fairbanks and Long Island University, while getting a bunch of help and luck elsewhere throughout the country.