(Photo: Riley Trujillo/WCSN)
There was a cascade of white shirts inside the student section of the Gene Polisseni Center on Friday night, as hundreds of Rochester Institute of Technology students had been granted free admission to its “whiteout” hockey game against No. 16 Arizona State, part of the university’s annual “Freeze Fest.”
The only thing frozen, however, was the jam-packed student section when the Sun Devils drew first blood just 26 seconds into the opening frame, a quick strike coming off the far-side faceoff. After ASU won the draw, junior defenseman Brinson Pasichnuk ripped a slapper from the point. Redshirt senior Dylan Hollman tipped the puck into the twine.
“It always feels good to go out there on the first shift and set the tone,” said senior centerman Anthony Croston, who was also accredited with an assist on the goal. “Luckily we were able to score a goal on the first shift so that fired us up for the rest of the game.”
The goal set the tone for the rest as the game, as the Sun Devils tamed the Tigers 6-1 in their first-ever meeting with RIT.
“I thought that result was great, ASU coach Greg Powers said postgame, adding: “They had some nice chances. We just converted on ours and they didn’t.”
RIT head coach Wayne Wilson echoed a similar sentiment.
“When we made a mistake, they capitalized,” he said. “When they made a mistake, their goalie came up with a save and we weren’t able to get any momentum.”
After the quick opener, the Sun Devils’ avalanche of goals continued a little more than eight minutes later, when an odd-man rush allowed sophomore winger and NCAA leading goal-scorer Johnny Walker to set up a wide-open teammate, junior center Brett Gruber, in the slot for a shot that went top-shelf and glove-slide over RIT sophomore goalie Ian Andriano to make it 2-0 at the first intermission. Andriano, RIT’s backup netminder this season, entered Friday’s game with a 2-0-0 record and a .942 save percentage, but couldn’t slow the Sun Devils down the rest of the night.
The Devils took a 2-0 lead into the first intermission.
Though the second period started more evenly, with both teams struggling to string together passes or generate more than a single shot on net most possessions, it turned out the Sun Devils didn’t need extended offensive zone time to score again. In fact, it only took one man.
Junior center Tyler Busch made it 3-0 midway through the second period, taking the puck up the ice himself along the boards from the ASU end into the RIT zone before freezing Andriano and going top shelf (glove side, again) to extend ASU’s lead.
Busch celebrated by banging on the glass separating the ice from the RIT students, the white-clad section numbed yet again after their Tigers had been gaining confidence minutes prior.
Throughout the game, RIT was able to fire the puck at ASU junior goaltender Joey Daccord. Although ASU limited the “Grade-A” scoring chances it allowed, the Tigers’ shots came like a blizzard during some stretches. Finally, the snuck one by the NCAA’s leader in saves.
On a faceoff minutes after Busch’s goal, RIT junior centerman Ryan Kruper got his stick to on the tied-up draw and fired a snapper that stupefied Daccord, who was not ready for a shot to come flying out of the scrum over the dot. It brought the Tigers back to within two.
A minute and a half later, RIT had a golden opportunity to cut its deficit to one after a slashing penalty on Gruber handed it a power play.
It was ASU, however, that capitalized.
On the penalty kill, Hollman was the hero yet again, skating the puck down the left-wing boards before ripping a shot similar to Busch’s into the glove-side corner too. It was Hollman’s third short-handed goal of the season, and the team’s first short-handed goal since he bagged one against Boston College on Jan. 4.
“That fourth goal that [Hollman] was huge,” Powers said. “[RIT was] pushing hard, and if they get another one to cut it to one, it’s anyone’s game.”
Instead, the goal put the Sun Devils up 4-1 going into the second break.
In the third, Pasichnuk iced the game with a pair of goals to finish with three points (2G, 1A) in ASU’s five-goal win, tying its largest margin of victory this year and setting a new season-high for goals in a road game.
The victory was ASU’s first away victory on a Friday since a 4-0 triumph against Princeton on Dec. 7. Though the Sun Devils are over .500 in Friday games this year, they had been just 2-5-0 in road series openers before Friday night. In Saturday games, however, ASU has lost just three times all season. If it avoids defeat in this weekends’ Saturday series finale, it would hand the team a key sweep as it builds its NCAA Tournament resume late in the season.
“I think it’s a good thing that we can adjust and come back even stronger on the back-half of series,” Powers said.
Despite the margin of victory, the Sun Devils had some lapses in play. Early on in the game especially, there was a lot of time where the puck would not stay on the stick of teammates after a pass. Rather the puck would go bouncing off the blade or into the boards. Yet they secured the win, taking another step toward earning a potential at-large bid.
“We did not show our best effort tonight,” Powers said. “I think that’s the silver lining of tonight’s win. We can play better than what we did.”
