ASU Men’s Hockey: Notes, quotes from Sun Devils 5-4 OT loss to PSU

(Photo: Travis Whittaker/WCSN)

Arizona State Men’s Hockey (3-6-1) fell 5-4 in an overtime loss to Penn State (3-5) Sunday. Here are the highlights and stats from the contest in addition to quotes from head coach Greg Powers and senior forward Willie Knierim.

Notes:

With 16:55 left in the first period, ASU sophomore forward Jax Murray scored on a breakaway to make it 1-0 ASU over the Nittany Lions.
Just 24 seconds later, freshman forward Benji Eckerle found the net to extend the Sun Devils’ lead to 2-0 with 16:31 left in the first period.
The last part of ASU’s onslaught came 45 seconds later, as senior center James Sanchez gave ASU a three goal lead with 15:46 left in the period. Sanchez’s goal was the Sun Devils’ third in just 1:09.
The Nittany Lions chipped into ASU’s lead shortly after. With 14:40 left in the first period, Penn State freshman forward Christian Sarlo shortened the Sun Devils’ lead to 3-1 with a goal.
With 11:27 left in the first period, Penn State was granted a power play, but ASU was able to kill it off.
A power play chance for the Sun Devils with 7:38 left in the first period resulted in a goal by Knierim, extending ASU’s lead to 4-1 with 5:55 left.
With 2:35 left in the first period, Penn State senior forward Alex Limoges scored to cut ASU’s lead to 4-2.
The second period opened with a goal by Penn State junior forward Aarne Talvitie 11 seconds in, cutting the Sun Devils’ lead in half to 4-3.
Four minutes and 10 seconds later, Limoges found the net for the second time and tied the Sun Devils at four.
ASU was given a power play with 13:54 left in the second period, but it was killed by the Nittany Lions.
Penalties by ASU and Penn State were issued with 1:04 left in the second period, resulting in 4-on-4 hockey until the intermission.
Both penalties were killed after the third period began.
With 7:19 left in the third period, ASU was awarded a power play but it was killed by the Nittany Lions defense.
One minute and 28 seconds into the overtime period, Penn State sophomore forward Connor McMenamin scored the game-winning goal to seal the 5-4 win for the Nittany Lions.

Stats:

Final: Penn State- 5 ASU- 4 (OT)

Shots: Penn State- 45 ASU- 40

Goals (ASU): Murray, Eckerle, Sanchez, Knierim

Goals (Penn State): Sarlo, Limoges (2), Talvitie, McMenamin

Saves: Evan DeBrouwer (ASU) – 40 Liam Souliere (Penn State) – 36

Quotes:

Head Coach Greg Powers on how the game got away…

“It was mental errors by guys that can’t make them, mental errors by upperclassmen that cannot make them. [Whether it’s] bad turnovers in the offensive zone that leads to an odd man rush, when you jump out to a lead like that, you can’t turn the puck over and give up odd man rushes. When you have seniors making those mistakes… it it what it is. When a senior jumps for a forward and gives us too many men on the ice – I don’t know. It’s unexplainable, some of the mental errors that were made. What was impressive was after they tied it up, we were hands down the better team. We did everything but finish. Credit to their goalie. He stole the game.”

” I thought we played really well tonight. I thought we were the better team. I thought we deserved to win. It’s heartbreaking losing two three-on-three overtime games back-to-back like that. It’s a really terrible way to lose and it’s a great way to win. It’s feast or famine. I told the guys after the game that we’re literally a hair from being on a six game win streak. We’re seeing how good we can be. We’re eight minutes away from sweeping Notre Dame and two three-on-three losses from getting two wins here. We’re right there. We can let those games break us and we won’t.”

Powers on ASU’s special teams performance…

“I thought our power play was really good. It got us a goal. It tilted the ice and got us really good chances. The two we didn’t convert were really good chances. The kid made some big saves. The kill was unfortunate. We got us a big kill in the first and then Sandy (junior forward Jordan Sandhu) dropped his stick and they got one off the rush. The power play took strides today. There’s no doubt about it.”

Powers on Penn State’s game-winning goal…

“There wasn’t a change error. It was a possession error. We gave up possession twice and that’s why they scored. It wasn’t a change error. It was a possession error. You can’t give up possession in three-on-three. You showed [ASU] the other night’s overtime and they knew what they had to do. We practice it all the time. There were a couple really, really dumb mistakes that resulted in giving up possession. If you’re tired and you can’t change and you have possession, you have to figure out a way to keep it and let two guys change. These guys all watch the NHL. They see those guys do it. They practice it all the time. Two nights in a row, we did not execute in the moment and it cost us.”

Powers on DeBrouwer getting back-to-back starts…

“He earned it. He played really, really well on Friday. I think he earned a back-to-back start. It was really similar to Cole’s [freshman goaltender Cole Brady] best game against Michigan. It’s why he earned that back-to-back start against Michigan State. Evan played well tonight. [Penn State’s] goalie probably played a little bit better. They got the win.”

Powers on Penn State’s goalie’s performance…

When you score four goals on the road, you’ve got to find a way to win. We got four quick ones tonight and the kid made like six breakaway saves. We got to find a way to put those in the net. But credit to him, he played really well. What’s impressive is that he’s a freshman who let in three goals that quickly and then a fourth and he really settled in and completely shut us down. It’s a big credit to him.”

Powers on the importance of faceoffs…

“It’s huge. When [Penn State] gets possession that much – tonight we were really bad. Our centers need to compete hard. That’s all it is. When you’re losing draws that cleanly and that often, you’re not focusing. That was the only area of the game tonight where they had the upper hand. Everywhere else, minus four completely overcomable mental mistakes that led to those goals, we played really well. We were the better team.”

Powers on whether the mistakes are the result of road fatigue…

“I don’t think we have late mental errors either night in a five-on-five. The errors came sporadically tonight. We have a 4-1 lead at the end of the first period. When you have the puck, you just can’t give it up. You can’t have guys that are making those errors. It can’t happen if you expect to win.”

Powers on the blocked shots by the forwards…

“I thought our forwards as a whole played really well tonight. Really well. A lot of the big mistakes came from the back end unfortunately. Up until tonight after that first Michigan game, our D-core has been tremendous. They had done what they needed to do to help us win games. They struggled a little tonight. But for our forwards, part of the game plan was really buying in to eat more pucks. Penn State is a shot volume team. They put the puck on net and converge. So if you can block shots against them, you can create transition and we did tonight.”

Knierim on how the game got away…

“It’s tough to say. I think we put together good shifts here and there. We dominated the game for the most part. We’ve got to put together a full sixty and a full sixty-plus if we need it.”

Knierim on the team’s mental state…

“It’s not the results we want but we’re fine. We’re mentally tough. I’ve said this before: we knew this was going to be a grind but all the boys in the locker room are here for it and we’re ready to go. We’re going to have to have an ‘Onto the next’ mentality against Ohio State in a week.”

Knierim on the mental mistakes…

“It’s something that we talked about and that we have to clean up. It’s just going over video the next week and everything. We’ve got to prepare a bit more and we’ll have those cleaned up.”

Knierim on knowing Ohio State is the last couple games for ASU for awhile…

“I think we try to attack every game the same, but knowing this is our last two games for a couple weeks gives us more juice. It’s an incentive because you don’t want to go into break thinking ‘That one slipped.’ Like I said before, we’re going to have to clean up a few things this week and give it our all the last two games before break.”