ASU Men’s Hockey: Sun Devils force 1-1 tie in at Michigan State

Arizona State (0-2-1) are still searching for their first win of the season after tying Michigan State (0-0-1) 1-1 Thursday night in East Lansing.

ASU freshman goaltender Cole Brady picked up where he left off against Michigan, making 25 saves on 26 shots in the second start of his college hockey career. His counterpart, Michigan State junior goalie Drew DeRidder, was equally effective, stopping 22 of the 23 shots he faced.

“The boys did a great job of letting me get a feel for the game right away,” Brady said. “The shots weren’t too bad off the start and then I kind of just dialed it in from there.”

The Spartans tested Brady early in the contest, but he held his ground save for a one-timer from Michigan State’s Christian Krygier that deflected in off of his blocker early in the second period.

Senior forward Chris Grando netted the tying goal for the Sun Devils with 4:14 remaining in regulation, seconds after leaving the penalty box. The score was Grando’s first as a Sun Devil and his first in NCAA competition since Mar. 22, 2019, when he played for Boston College.

“It was huge,” Grando said. “Big weight off my shoulders after not playing for a while.”

The Sun Devils pushed for another goal late in regulation but were unable to solve DeRidder a second time and struggled to create any offense during the five-minute overtime period.

While they did not make it onto the scoresheet, ASU’s top line was impressive in the absence of senior forward and team co-captain Johnny Walker, who was not able to play in the contest due to a lower body injury suffered on Nov. 15 during ASU’s 3-0 to Michigan. Freshman forward Matthew Kopperud filled in for Walker and generated several quality scoring chances, including a crafty toe-drag shot that narrowly missed the net.

“Sanchez, Dhooghe and Kopperud were really feeling it,” head coach Greg Powers said. “They had a lot of chances and [DeRidder] made some big saves against that line, so I wanted to get them out as much as I could.”

While the Sun Devils went 0-of-3 on the power play, failing to cash in on the man-advantage for the second straight game, their penalty killing unit was stellar, consistently clogging the middle of the ice and preventing the Spartans from getting any shots to the net on all three instances.

“I thought they had their good moments tonight,” Powers said. “So hopefully we can start winning games and the special teams battle.”

The two teams will face off again on Friday at 4 PM MST in what the Sun Devils hope will be a higher-scoring matchup.

“We need to generate offense and I think you’ll see more of that tomorrow,” Powers said.

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