(Photo: Sun Devil Athletics)
When a goal scorer gets on a hot streak, it seems like they have a chance to score every time they touch the puck.
Arizona State freshman forward Matthew Kopperud and his sophomore counterpart Jax Murray proved it on Thursday night, as both players scored twice in the Sun Devils’ series-opening 6-3 victory over No. 16 Notre Dame (2-3).
Murray scored off of a clean faceoff win early in the second period and added an empty-net tally to secure his second consecutive two-goal performance, while Kopperud fired two blazing wrist shots past Notre Dame sophomore goaltender Ryan Bischel to extend his goal streak to three games.
Kopperud nearly completed the hat trick on a breakaway in the third period, but had the puck roll off of his stick and into the corner.
“I’m definitely playing with a lot more confidence in my shot and trusting it more than I did at the start,” Kopperud said. “It’s working so I’m just going to keep shooting.”
Thanks to Kopperud and Murray’s performances, No. 20 ASU (3-3-1) won its third game in a row and got back to .500 on the season. ASU junior goaltender Evan DeBrouwer stopped 31-of-34 shots against in his second win of the campaign, while Bischel conceded five goals on 25 shots in the loss.
The Fighting Irish found themselves behind very early on, as ASU freshman forward Ryan O’Reilly scored 11 seconds into the game on the first shot by either team. Notre Dame was forced to play catch-up from that point on and never truly settled into a rhythm.
“I think it kind of surprised them and set them on their heels,” head coach Greg Powers said. “We settled in and did what we needed to do and it’s a lot easier when you have a lead.”
While Powers emphasized the importance of discipline heading into the matchup, special teams were largely a nonfactor. The Fighting Irish scored on their only trip to the man advantage while ASU broke even by scoring seconds after the conclusion of their lone power play opportunity.
Notre Dame managed to do enough to keep the game close until the final minutes of regulation, but the Sun Devils seemed to answer every Irish goal with one of their own and thwarted any chance of a comeback.
“It’s just a lot of belief,” Powers said. “That week we were kind of just sitting around in Wisconsin during Thanksgiving you could feel it. You could feel the positivity. We have a lot of guys doing really good things right now.”
The Sun Devils have now scored 17 goals over the course of their three-game win streak and will look to add to that total in game two of the series, which will be held Friday at 5 p.m. MT and televised nationally on NBC Sports Network. Meanwhile, Notre Dame will look to record its first home win of the season.
