ASU Men’s Hockey splits series with No. 9 Providence, finishes homestand 6-2

(Photo: Hailey Rogalski/WCSN)

On the one-year anniversary of Arizona State’s first overtime win at Mullett Arena over then-No. 2 Minnesota, hopes of repeating that Mullett Magic filled the room following ASU’s 4-3 overtime win Friday evening. However, the No.9 Providence Friars defeated the Sun Devils 2-1 in Sunday’s matinee series finale to walk away with a series split.

Like the Anchorage series a week ago, the Providence series was played on Friday and Sunday due to logistics surrounding Saturday’s Territorial Cup football matchup next door at Mountain America Stadium.

“We didn’t mind it,” ASU head coach Greg Powers said. “It didn’t really hurt attendance [overall]. It was a good crowd today. It hurt a little bit of our students, but they’ve supported us so well. It’s not going to be the norm. Sometimes you get asked to be flexible for the athletic department in the bigger picture, and we were with both the football home games. Our fans [still] came out and supported us, and that’s all you can ask.”

It was a tight contest that saw the Sun Devils struggling to create shot opportunities, as the Friars outshot the Devils 34-20. Furthermore, ASU did not earn double digit shots in a single period. Overall, it was a much cleaner game from both sides as each team only committed three penalties, compared with a combined 12 penalties on Friday.

Senior forward Dylan Jackson scored the day’s lone power-play goal with just over 13 minutes to go in the second period after a shot deflected off the stick of Providence defenseman Luke Krys and into the net. The goal came after a previous ASU goal was overturned after review for offsides.

Fans voiced their disapproval of the weekend’s officials many times in both games, booing those in the striped shirts on the ice and chanting, “Refs, you suck!” multiple times on Sunday alone. The most notable of these occasions occurred just minutes into the third period after a no-call on a full contact hit to Dylan Jackson’s head. Powers challenged the call for a five-minute major, which still was not overturned.

“I think they didn’t call it after I challenged it because they didn’t want to be proven wrong,” Powers said after the game. “Did you see that contact? I saw that contact. I think we all saw that contact. I get getting it wrong live. You’re human and refs are going to make mistakes, but that’s why we have video review. I’ve seen way, way less get called for five in a game, let alone nothing at all. I would love to know what they saw on the video review, but I know the video review was working because 5,000 people saw it.”

Shortly after Jackson’s power-play goal, Friars’ left-wing Jamie Engelbert found the back of the net from the right face-off dot and just over the right shoulder of ASU goalie TJ Semptimphelter. Just three and a half minutes later, junior forward Riley Duran would score the game-winning goal on a breakaway shift off a face-off in Providence’s defensive zone.

“He did what he had to do to hold us in,” Powers said of Semptimphelter. “We gave them two goals. You have to manage games against teams that good. We had the lead and were starting to play down a little. Then, we started to turn pucks over.”

“We just need to stay dialed in for a full 60 minutes,” captain and graduate forward Tyler Gratton said, concurring with Powers.

“I certainly don’t think we should’ve won, but we could’ve won,” added Powers. “We played well enough to get [a different result]. It just didn’t go our way.”

Sunday’s loss wraps up an eight-game homestand for the Sun Devils, during which they were 6-2. ASU improves to 10-3-1 overall and an impressive 10-2 at home as it prepares to take its second of five road trips this season, where the Sun Devils will begin a two-game series at Colorado College on Friday.

“I love going on the road because you get to go into someone else’s building. I’ve never played at Colorado College,” Gratton said.

“Some really good hockey teams have come in here and when you’re 6-2 in the eight-game homestand, that’s really good,” Powers said. “Our guys know we can play against anybody and now we have to go prove that on the road. We have six of our next eight away from Mullett and it’s a really good opportunity to go get some road wins and let the Pairwise favor us in that regard.”