(Photo: Sun Devil Athletics)
TEMPE — When a one-timer from sophomore forward Logan Morrell sailed into the net with 15 minutes remaining in the second period, Arizona State was well on its way to avenging a 7-4 defeat the night prior. The Sun Devils held a 3-1 lead, and with the help of an arena filled to the brim with rabid fans, regaining a two-goal advantage against one of the top teams in the country was nothing short of a dream scenario.
What followed immediately after can only be described as a full-blown nightmare. Over the course of the next 18 minutes of play, ASU (12-13-1, 5-8-1 NCHC) could only watch as No. 4 North Dakota (20-6, 12-4 NCHC) rattled off four unanswered goals to cement a 5-3 loss and a home series sweep.
“We gave (the students) two really exciting periods both nights in the third,” head coach Greg Powers said. “Both nights got away from us. It felt a lot like Penn State, and it’s really just unfortunate. You could say those are the four biggest home games of the year.”
After both teams traded quality chances in the first five minutes, senior forward Bennett Schimek found sophomore defenseman Brasen Boser sitting near the right face-off circle. The North Dakota native, who recorded a minus-four goal differential on Friday, ripped a one-timer goal for his first time reaching the back of the net this season.
After losing sophomore forward Cullen Potter for the season due to injury, the Sun Devils found a way to replace the point-per-game scorer with seven goals over two games against a North Dakota team that entered the weekend only allowing 2.08 goals per game. But without the veteran presence of the first first-round NHL Draft pick in program history, the inexperience surfaced at inopportune moments.
“It was awesome,” Powers said. “We started getting some production from the back, which is huge, and we’re gonna need it with the guys we have out up front. You could feel (Potter’s) absence today.”
The Sun Devils had the first wave of momentum going in their favor, and they initially seemed keen on taking advantage of it right away. A high-sticking call against graduate defenseman Bennett Zmolek led to a turn on the power play where freshman forward Sam Alfano slipped a wrist shot into the top left corner.
Even when the Fighting Hawks cut the lead in half four minutes later, ASU’s unit on the man advantage rounded a two-for-three outing with Morrell’s one-timer early in the second.
Jan Špunar, the NCAA’s top-ranked netminder in goals against on average, appeared to have no answers for the Sun Devils newfound depth scoring.
“It felt like we were gonna do it tonight,” head coach Greg Powers said. “It really did. I think that there wasn’t a doubt on that bench when we went up 3-1. We felt really good about our game, and the kill was really sharp. Then, we just made a mistake there at the end of the second and really just turned everything for us.”
That mistake ended up being a wide-open Andrew Strathmann right in front of the net 30 seconds before the conclusion of the first 40 minutes of play. Most of ASU’s attention was diverted to a scrum for the puck breaking out against the wall, and by the time the team realized a pass was made, the sophomore defenseman had buried an easy wrist shot goal.
With all momentum sapped right before the horn, the Fighting Hawks waited 42 seconds before kicking off the final period by strolling down into the opposing zone and setting up freshman forward and Boston Bruins prospect Will Zellers to sling the equalizing goal.
The last thing the Sun Devils could afford was a mismatch in its own end, and with a little over ten minutes left, a stroke of bad luck ended up finishing the job. Freshman goaltender Samuel Urban swatted away a puck that landed near center ice, leading ASU to attempt a line change.
A long pass gave possession to senior forward Ben Strinden, who skated up towards the net with junior defenseman Anthony Dowd in pursuit. Instead of attempting a shot himself, Strinden noticed senior forward Dylan James skating free, completed the two-on-one opportunity by making a pass to the left, and officially erased the deficit.
“We gotta learn how to hold the lead,” senior forward Cruz Lucius said. “That starts with the older guys down. That can’t happen. We know they’re a good team. They’re heavy and quick. Few unforced errors too at the start of the third. Just buying in and we just didn’t do that.”
In a sick twist of fate, however, penalties were what ultimately set the dominoes in place for ASU’s reversal of fortune. The Sun Devils sent eight men to the penalty box during the contest, leading to North Dakota having the numbers in its favor seven different times.
The penalty kill’s overall performance started with a goal for freshman defenseman Keaton Verhoeff and ended with a dagger of a wrist shot by Striden three minutes out from the final horn. However, the third-best unit in the NCHC still managed five straight successful kills and a 71 percent success rate.
As a result of the Sun Devils constantly playing with one arm tied behind their back, the Fighting Hawks dominated the shot ratio 45-21. Urban’s season-high 40 saves weren’t enough to counter the 15 shots per period that came his way.
“He was a stud all night, made some huge saves, kept us in the game,” Schimek said. “We let him down.”
ASU’s six-game homestand in January ends in a 3-3 record while the team sits below .500 and at No. 28 in the NPI ahead of the final five regular-season series.
More crucially, the Sun Devils are only two points out of ninth-place in the NCHC standings. Colorado College, the team that currently occupies that spot, is ASU’s next opponent and sports a 1-0-1 record against the team this season.
For a squad that shows flashes of being good enough to compete with some of the best in the country, the Sun Devils truly have little to no margin for error left over the next month.
“(North Dakota) played really well,” Powers said. “That’s a great team. They could easily be a national championship team. They’re very good. They just keep coming out in waves and you make too many mistakes. They’re gonna make you pay, and that’s exactly what happened.”
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