(Photo: Xavier Litman/WCSN)
After an impressive upset over then-No. 6 North Dakota two weeks ago, the goal this weekend for Arizona State Men’s Hockey was to keep the momentum going in the first of two series against the Alaska Anchorage Seawolves this season. The two programs will meet once again in Anchorage on Mar. 3 and 4.
The Sun Devils achieved that goal, completing the sweep in a 3-0 victory over the Seawolves on Saturday, extending their win streak to five games.
“I feel like we played a much better, much cleaner game tonight,” head coach Greg Powers said. “You have to credit their goalie. This [was] his first college start in this environment against a really good team that threw a lot at him, and he held them in the game. He had a hell of a night.”
The defense was critical for ASU on Saturday, as both teams were held scoreless until junior forward Lukas Sillinger’s power-play goal late in the second period. The Sun Devils held Anchorage to only three shots on goal for the first 25 minutes of the game and 19 by the end of the night, compared with ASU’s 40 total shots on goal, saved by freshman goalie Jared Whale.
“It starts with breakouts for sure, just getting the puck out so they don’t have possession to get shots,” junior forward Benji Eckerle said, who won six of his seven face-off attempts.
This was most notably reflected in the special teams unit, with ASU killing all five of their penalties, including a five-minute major and game misconduct assessed against freshman forward Cade Stibbe, an unfortunate ending to his collegiate debut.
“The kill was really good tonight,” Powers said. “We’re killing a lot of penalties up ice, which is what you want to do, and we’re denying clean entry [into the zone].”
“Man, you got to feel bad for that kid,” he added of Stibbe’s penalty. “It’s his first shift of his college career and he gets a penalty, but he’ll get another shot. He’s a great kid and he’s been working really hard for that opportunity tonight. I don’t think that was a game [misconduct]. I think you have the liberty to call it five and just leave it at five like their guy did last night, but the boys picked him up.”
Physicality was a recurring theme in the Sun Devils’ 3-0 shutout victory, also seen mid-way through the second period when senior defenseman Jack Judson had a late hit on Anchorage, leading to a brief minor altercation between the two squads. The play was reviewed for another possible five-minute major but the original call was upheld.
Saturday’s victory added to sophomore goalie TJ Semptimphelter’s already impressive season resume, marking his third shutout in just 11 games so far this season. The program record for career shutouts is currently held by Joey Daccord with eight in his three years with the program from 2016-19. Seven of those were in the 2018-19 season alone. Through Friday, Semptimphelter ranks second in the NCAA in saves and 11th in save percentage.
“What’s really brought us success since [Colorado College] is we just focused on ourselves,” Powers said. “We didn’t show the guys any film on Anchorage. We knew what their tendencies were and tweaked some things in practice to focus on how we needed to play, and we’re going to continue to focus on just us and not our opponents.”
ASU will now ride a five-game winning streak as they go back on the road at Clarkson next weekend, but the schedule won’t get any easier from here. It’s been an eventful three weeks for the Sun Devils, who will likely see a nice number next to their name on Monday, in this week’s NCAA rankings.
“We’re a hard-working blue-collar team,” Sillinger said. “We want to approach every week like it’s our last game, build off momentum week by week and I think we’ve done a great job of that.”
In the two weekends to follow, they will play Minnesota and Denver, currently the top two teams in all of college hockey. Any number of wins against those programs will only help the Sun Devils down the stretch, in the pursuit of their second NCAA Tournament appearance in program history.
“We’re establishing our identity, how we want to play, what we want to be, and the guys are buying into it,” Powers said. “It’s hard to win five straight in college hockey, so we’re really proud of them.”
