(Photo: Travis Whittaker/WCSN)
Shortly after No. 17 Arizona State won its eighth straight home game of the season on Saturday night over Michigan Tech, its fifth-year head coach, Greg Powers, delivered a message that hardly conveyed the elation of victory.
“I told the guys I wasn’t happy,” Powers said succinctly following his team’s 4-3 win.
His displeasure stemmed from a third period meltdown which saw the Sun Devils (11-8-3) cede three goals to the Huskies (13-9-1) while scoring just one of their own. ASU’s 3-0 lead was quickly trimmed to a one-goal advantage.
“The guys have to play a full 60 tomorrow,” Powers said as he looked forward to Sunday’s series finale with Michigan Tech. “They have to. It’s cliché. They’re hearing me say it all the time, but it’s time. It’s time to finish a game.”
Powers’ post-game message on Saturday night merely foreshadowed Sunday’s misfortune. In front of a sold-out crowd at Oceanside Ice Arena, the Sun Devils fell 3-2 to the Huskies.
“Our guys need to be more desperate,” Powers said following Sunday’s defeat, the first loss on home ice since the season opener on October 5th against Mercyhurst.
The Sun Devils had been stagnant until the final five minutes of regulation.
On their seventh power-play opportunity of the weekend, ASU’s top unit finally cashed in. Junior forward Willie Knierim tipped home a Brinson Pasichnuk shot from the point to tie the game, giving the Sun Devils’ offense some life.
“When we tied it up, there was no doubt in our minds that we were going to win this game,” Powers said of his team’s 2-2 tally with under three minutes to play in the third period.
However, Michigan Tech took advantage of a rare defensive zone mistake by sophomore defenseman Josh Maniscalco with 2:06 remaining.
“They outmuscled us for a puck on a retrieval,” Powers said. “It was a real simple play that needs to be made 100 times out of 100, but we didn’t make it and they got a nice win.”
As Sun Devil sophomore defenseman Josh Maniscalco raced back in his territory for the wobbling puck, he was caught off-guard by the fore-checking Husky forward Tommy Parrottino.
Parrottino gained control on the near boards before slicing a cross-ice pass to the opposite side for Trenton Bliss. Bliss backhanded the feed to the freshman forward Logan Pietila, who dashed all alone toward the goal mouth. Pietila completed the tic-tac-toe play and was rewarded with the 3-2 game-winner.
“I don’t have any explanation for why that happened or why he allowed that to happen, but I know he’s more upset about it than anybody,” Powers said of Maniscalco during the scoring sequence.
Maniscalco’s miscue wasn’t the only costly mistake in ASU territory throughout the tight-knit series.
Sophomore defenseman Jarrod Gourley coughed up the puck to Michigan Tech freshman forward Brian Halonen for the Huskies’ first goal of the series after not finding many scoring chances through two periods of play. A failed clearing attempt by sophomore forward PJ Marrocco resulted in a Huskies power-play marker moments later.
Senior forward Steenn Pasichnuk didn’t apply enough back-checking pressure as Bliss split three Sun Devil defenders to tally his team-leading sixth power-play goal of the season to open Sunday’s scoring.
With a weekend split to begin 2020, the Sun Devils are now 6-2-2 on home ice, have not completed a sweep in over two months against Quinnipiac. Since then, ASU is 6-5-3.
Moving down two spots to No. 16 in the PairWise rankings, Powers’ squad currently lies on the bubble again. The Sun Devils have been in this spot before, but this year’s schedule will not make things easier with the regular season entering its home stretch.
“We are not the same team as last year,” Powers said. “We can’t sneak up on anybody. Last year it was a much different mindset…I think the shock value was there with other teams, and it was hard for them to bounce back the next day. But now we have a target on our backs because we are a really good team, and it’s hard to sweep in college hockey. It’s so hard to do. You don’t see very many sweeps ever, and our guys are learning that the hard way.”
