(Photo: Marina Williams/WCSN)
While statistics on paper suggested ASU cruising to an easy victory, it instead needed to fight and claw its way to a 3-1 win at Northern Michigan on Friday night.
ASU (2-4-1) entered Marquette, Mich. looking for a much-needed rebound after a road sweep against No. 13 Providence the previous week. This series against Northern Michigan (1-4) is the second of three straight series on an extended road trip that sees the Sun Devils away from Mullett Arena until Nov. 15.
ASU’s lineup saw a few notable tweaks coming in. First-line duties were handed to junior forward Bennett Schimek and freshman forward Cullen Potter while graduate forward Artem Shlaine and junior forward Charlie Schoen were placed on the third line. In addition, Arizona State head coach Greg Powers entrusted the start in net to senior goaltender Luke Pavicich.
After 13 minutes of scoreless play to open up the first period, Schimek proved his coach’s instincts correct by turning a long pass by graduate forward Lukas Sillinger into a one-timer sneaking under the legs of senior goaltender Ryan Ouellette to put the Sun Devils up 1-0.
However, bad luck allowed the Wildcats to respond almost immediately. With around three minutes left in the first period, Northern Michigan freshman defenseman Anthony Cliche held the puck in the right corner near the blue line before firing a snap shot that deflected off of ASU freshman defenseman Sam Court’s stick to bounce into the net.
From then on, any offensive momentum between the two teams gave way to an exhibition of stingy defensive play. Opportunities presented themselves to the Sun Devils on the power play when Northern Michigan was given a minor penalty for slashing and a five minute major for charging in the second period. Instead ASU failed to convert on both despite nearly tripling the shot total of the Wildcats.
As the clock ticked down to show three minutes remaining in the third period, Arizona State senior forward Ryan Kirwan put the team on his back once again. Graduate forward Dylan Jackson found Kirwan sitting at the front of the net, and after his initial shot was blocked, the rebound drifted right back towards his stick where he buried it past Ouellette to give ASU a 2-1 lead.
The Sun Devils later put the nail in the coffin after Artem Shlaine floated a pass to graduate forward Benji Eckerle for a backhand goal on an empty net with 7.2 seconds left.
After doubling the shot on goal total of the Wildcats and being on the power play for seven minutes, the game needing to go down to the wire proves the Sun Devils’ performance was far from flawless. Regardless, ASU is back in the win column outright for the first time since the season opener at Air Force on Oct. 4.
Arizona State wraps up the series at Northern Michigan at 3:07 p.m. MST on Saturday.
