ASU Men’s Hockey: Sun Devils fall 4-2 on Sunday, split with UMass Lowell

(Photo: Joey Plishka/WCSN)

Arizona State Men’s Hockey dropped the second game of its two-game series against UMass Lowell on Sunday night.

In the 4-2 loss, the Sun Devils dug themselves into an early hole and were unable to comeback.

The first period was a tough one for the Sun Devils. ASU’s freshmen showed their youth and inexperience within the first ten minutes, as freshman forward Josh Doan committed an elbowing penalty in the second minute of the game. The penalty would lead to a UMass Lowell goal 46 seconds later to make it 1-0.

ASU put itself in more trouble when freshman forward Jack Jensen committed a five minute major penalty for checking from behind. The Sun Devils’ penalty kill was unable to be successful as UMass-Lowell scored their second power play goal of the period.

ASU head coach Greg Powers said postgame that he wasn’t concerned with the penalties that were being committed, but did say that he thought the call on Doan was “soft” and disagreed with the major call on Jensen.

The Sun Devils turned around their play after the first period, though.

Sophomore forward Matthew Kopperud continued his hot start to the new season with his third goal of the year. The goal came off of ASU’s first odd man rush of the game five minutes into the second period.

ASU was able to make it a close game in the third period after UMass-Lowell committed a five minute major penalty of their own. Senior forward Jack Becker scored the Sun Devils’ fifth power play goal of the season to tie the game at two.

Powers believed that Becker’s goal would have been big for the Sun Devils.

“We came out and scored on the powerplay and I think that goal took the wind out of them a little bit,” Powers said.

Unfortunately for ASU, UMass-Lowell did not back down after giving up the game-tying goal. A minute and 15 seconds after Becker’s goal, UMass Lowell would come down the ice and score. The shot was released from the blue line, hit the post and got past junior goalie Ben Kraws.

“That took the wind out of our bench,” Powers said. “It gave them all the momentum for the rest of the game.”

When UMass-Lowell took the 3-2 lead with 14 minutes left to go in the third, the game became very even as neither team was getting chances.

UMass-Lowell would end up scoring an empty net goal with 45 seconds left to make the final score 4-2.

Powers made many lineup adjustments to try to get another goal scored late in the contest. With Jensen out, the bench was shortened and newer players were earning more minutes than usual.

“At the end of the third we were trying to find another goal so we pushed as much offense out there as we could,” Powers said. “We had to find a way to get some mojo and tie the game up.”

ASU is now 1-1 on the season and the schedule does not get easier for it, as the Sun Devils hit the road next weekend to play two games against Denver.