(Photo: Brendan Belfield/WCSN)
After a lackluster performance against Boston University over the weekend, Arizona State Men’s Hockey’s offense woke up to take down one of the best defenses in college hockey on Tuesday night.
In the rare midweek matchup, ASU took down No. 11 ranked Northeastern by a score of 6-2 at the historic Matthews Arena in Boston. The Sun Devils’ win snapped the Huskies’ six-game winning streak.
Coming into the game, Northeastern averaged less than three goals allowed per game and did not give up more than four in a contest since the opening month of the season. ASU is only the third team to score more than four goals against Northeastern this year.
ASU dominated the game to start. The Sun Devils had their best offensive period of the season in the first, as they set a new high in 2021-22 for most shots in a period with 25 and were able to get two past Northeastern sophomore goaltender Devon Levi, who could be considered one of the best goalies in the nation as his save percentage of 95.8% ranks first in the country.
Junior goaltender Ben Kraws was solid for ASU throughout the entire game. He was able to stop 27 of Northeastern’s 29 shots while making a couple of highlight-reel saves.
Freshman forward Josh Doan opened the scoring for ASU with his fourth power-play goal of the season. Doan’s goal snapped Northeastern’s streak of seven games without allowing a goal on the man advantage. The goal also put Doan back on top of the country’s leaderboard for freshman scorers.
The Sun Devils were not done scoring in the first after Doan’s goal. Senior forward Collin Theisen took control of the team goal lead with his fourteenth goal of the season.
Northeastern was able to keep the game close throughout the second period. The Huskies tied the game at two and seemed to have all the momentum. ASU would shut down the Huskies’ efforts of keeping the game close by scoring two goals in the final five minutes of the period.
Redshirt senior forward Chris Grando netted his fifth goal of the season to break the tie. On the goal, Northeastern committed a boarding penalty that put ASU back on the powerplay.
Theisen was able to get his second goal of the game and extend ASU’s lead to 4-2 heading into the third period. Theisen recorded his seventh multi-point game of the season on Tuesday.
ASU did not take its foot off the gas heading into the third and scored within the first five minutes of the period. Freshman forward Jack Jensen scored his third goal of the season to put the Sun Devils up 5-2.
The game would end by a score of 6-2 after sophomore forward Matthew Kopperud scored an empty-net goal in the dying minutes of the game. The snipe gave Kopperud control of the ASU’s points lead as he also recorded two assists in the game.
The Sun Devils will finish off their two-week-long road trip this weekend at RIT. The two-game series will start Friday night at 5 p.m. MST.
