(Photo: Joey Plishka/WCSN)
With the compact stands of Oceanside Ice Arena littered with maroon and gold, Arizona State Men’s Hockey defeated the New Hampshire Wildcats 5-1 for the second straight night in a row, recording their first series sweep of the season.
Even though the Sun Devils came into Saturday’s game with a dominating win against the Wildcats in their back pocket on Friday night, they still entered the game on high-alert.
“We just talked as a group before the game, and we knew (the Wildcats) were going to come out because they’ve watched film before, so we switched a little bit and it ended up working,” sophomore forward Matthew Kopperud said
It especially worked out for Kopperud offensively on Saturday, as he recorded two goals on the night, both coming on power plays.
Kopperud notched his first goal just under seven minutes into play, opening up the scoring for both teams. He also ended the Sun Devils’ high scoring Saturday night affair with a late third period power play goal.
The sophomore forward now leads the entire nation in power play goals with six. Kopperud is also the nation’s leader in points (12) and goals (seven).
Power plays were key in the Sun Devils’ victory Saturday evening, not only on the offensive side, but defensively as well.
ASU sophomore goaltender Cole Brady saw 19 blocked shots in front of him on Saturday, and the Sun Devils’ penalty kill drowned out three Wildcats power plays.
“Penalty kill is just a buy in from the guys, and I am just down there as a last resort,” Brady said. “They’re the first line of defense and they did a great job getting in the way of the pucks and sacrificing their bodies this weekend.”
ASU head coach Greg Powers on the other hand didn’t shy away from giving credit to where it was due. Brady, even while giving credit to his defense, faced 10 shots on the three power plays. In comparison, the Wildcats allowed five ASU shots on its four power plays on Saturday night.
“If your goalie is your best guy on the kill, then you got a good thing going for you, and he made some monster, monster saves on the kill to keep perfect,” Powers said of Brady’s performance.
Brady also registered a season-high 40 saves against the Wildcats.
With nearly perfect goalkeeping, and high-level offense, the Sun Devils’ dominating weekend in Tempe has them at 3-3-0 six games into the 2021-22 season.
“We expect to win a lot of games this year, so this is a weekend [with] a lot of really good steps in the right direction,” Powers said.
He added: “It just feels good to get back to .500, and we know we have a really good hockey team, and the best is yet to come. I think we’re barely scratching the surface of how good we can be.”
The Sun Devils have the opportunity to continue to showcase their potential on Oct. 22, when they enter a two-game series against a Colgate Raiders team (4-1-0) that will be coming off of a 5-3 loss against Merrimack.
“(Colgate is) a good team,” Powers said. “They are off to a good start, so it’s an opportunity to get a really good quality road win on Friday.”
