ASU offensive struggles lead to sweep against No. 8 Colorado College

(Photo: Marina Williams/WCSN)

On Friday evening, ASU made its NCHC debut in a tough 4-3 overtime loss on the road against No. 8 Colorado College. With an opportunity to at least split in the program’s first in-conference series the next day, too many mistakes in key areas and little offensive spark led to the Sun Devils being swept out of Colorado Springs.

ASU’s lineup card saw Greg Powers reshuffle the deck in all three aspects of play. Forwards senior Ryan Kirwan and graduate Dylan Jackson swapped out graduate Artem Shlaine and junior Bennett Schimek on the first line while freshman Joel Kjellberg tagged in for junior Tucker Ness, who played on ASU’s fourth forward line, on defense. Senior Luke Pavicich also took over between the pipes for his fifth start of the season.

The first period proved a microcosm of the Sun Devils’ (3-6-1) performance throughout the entire game. ASU put up 10 shots in the first six minutes of play that were either off-target or stopped cold by Tigers’ (7-0-0) junior goaltender Kaidan Mbereko who rebounded from a shaky performance the night prior to produce 41 saves.

At the 6:59 mark, Colorado College junior forward Gleb Veremyev was called for slashing to set up a power play that could’ve blown the contest wide open. Just like other two power play opportunities that arised later on, Arizona State failed to capitalize. The team only managed to put up 5 total shots in the four minutes that saw them on the man advantage.

The same couldn’t be said for the Tigers who took a 1-0 lead just 16 seconds into their first turn on the power play after sophomore forward Drew Montgomery buried a pass from sophomore defenseman Max Burkholder past Pavicich.

After a 39-minute stalemate where both sides took turns putting men in the ice box and Colorado College somehow failing to score on a 3-on-1 defensive lapse, graduate forward Tyler Coffey won a 1-on-1 breakaway by flicking a backhander into the net to push the Tigers’ lead up to two goals.

With a minute left to go in the contest and the Sun Devils’ backs against the wall, sophomore defenseman Anthony Dowd fired a shot that resulted in a frantic scramble in front of the net. Sophomore forward David Hymovitch eventually came up with the puck, scoring the first goal of his collegiate career and pulling ASU within one.

35 seconds later, Tigers’ sophomore forward Klavs Veinbergs scored on an empty net to ensure Colorado College remained undefeated and Arizona State would head back home losing two straight.

The Sun Devils ended the contest leading the Tigers in total shots (76-41), shots on goal (42-21), and blocked shots (15-14). Yet, the team’s failure to convert on the power play and offensive inefficiency made sure the win column remained untouched in its first taste of NCHC competition.

ASU returns to Mullett Arena for the first time in over a month for a series against the Omaha starting on Nov. 15.