(Photo Courtesy – Samantha Maxwell)
As time winded down on the clock late in the third period between Arizona State Men’s Hockey and the University of St.Thomas head coach Greg Powers and Sun Devil hockey could finally rejoice and breathe a sigh of relief as their four-game losing streak came to a close in a fitting fashion, 4-0.
“It was a tough four-game stretch,” Powers said with relief. “When you lose four straight in college hockey it feels like 14 straight so it was all about changing the mindset this week and the approach, and just making sure these guys showed up and had fun…tonight they did that, all week they did that and tonight it translated.”
After dropping four in a row Sun Devil hockey was struggling to find success in all facets of the game. Tonight was a different story. It would take almost two periods for ASU to find the back of the net but with 1:54 remaining in the second period the brother-to-brother telepathy worked in favor of the Jackson brothers as Dylan Jackson fired a shot on goal and brother Ty Jackson who was driving the slot was able to pick up the rebound and drive the puck home.
“The first half of the game was kinda going the way it has been offensively and just couldn’t find the back of the net and then we got a nice ugly old fashioned goal… That’s usually how it starts, you’ve gotta earn your puck luck and you gotta earn your goals when you’re struggling to score and tonight we did that.”
When struggling to score, getting the first can provide much-needed relief to the bench and everyone.
“Seeing them score that first one was just a relief,” fifth-year forward Demetrios Koumontzis stated.
After the score sheet opened wide for the third period starting Koumontzis.
Koumontzis (who was recently asked to drop down and play defense) from the point lasered the puck past freshman goaltender Aaron Trotter. Komuntzis would also assist on the third goal for a two-point night overall for himself
“He’s pretty good back there and we just had a feeling he would be,” Powers said. “It’s a good night for Komo we’re proud of him. He’s a program guy, he’s a founding father of our program in every way.”
“It’s a new experience for me but I’m just taking it with a grain of salt and doing everything I can to help the team win,” said Koumontzis.
The power play as of late for ASU has been a bleak affair, to say the least going 2/24 in their past six games not counting tonight were finally able to find the back of the net during a five-minute major for kneeing.
Sophomore Jack Jensen scored the third goal but the Jackson brothers made it four nothing as this time Ty Jackson was able to help his brother Dylan get the fourth goal for the Sun Devils in a dominant fashion with a beauty of a toe drag.
Sophomore TJ Semptimphelter picked up his fifth shutout of the night only having to stop 17 shots in what was one of the more complete games that Arizona State Hockey has been able to put together in a while. The last time ASU was able to hold an opportunity to under 20 shots and win was in game two against Alaska Anchorage. They did hold RIT to 20 shots in game two of that series but that was still a loss.
Amongst a win being added to the win column an injury can also be added. Junior Matthew Kopperud felt the game early as he was the victim of the kneeing penalty earlier in the third period. Powers said it was too early to know the status of Kopperud’s injury and will probably be out tomorrow but after that is unknown.
The mindset now for the Sun Devils is to finish out the rest of the season on a strong note.
“Now we just gotta keep going, you gotta play like you want to win not like you need to win,” Powers commented. “If you play like you want to win then you can go out there and go take it and you play free and you play to win. You play like you need to win, you’re playing not to lose. When you’re playing not to lose you lose four straight, so hopefully we can do that for 11 more games. We reset it, it was a 12-game season starting tonight, we’re 1-0 and now we gotta go win tomorrow.”
The Sun Devils will look to keep the winning ways on Saturday as they face the Tommies again at 7 p.m. MST.
