(Photo courtesy: Billy Wuneburger)
TEMPE – Saturday night’s game had so many themes and stories around it. It’s hard to choose where to start with ASU’s 7-0 win over Colorado.
Let’s start with the shots. In their last series against Michigan, both teams had nearly even shot attempts. In ASU’s last meetup with Colorado on Friday, Jan. 20, ASU had 46 shots compared to the Buffs’ 19. The Sun Devils have been known to get a lot of shots against their opponents, but nothing like this. A whopping 63 shots in total for ASU while the Buffs managed only 17. That is almost quadrupling the number of shots that the Buffs took.
“It’s something we’ve really emphasized at practice,” head coach Lindsey Ellis said. “Rebounds, tips, really anything. We struggled with that against past opponents. I’m happy we followed through with that.”
“I think we had a really good forecheck.” graduate forward Mason Walker said. “We were all over them in the offensive zone. It’s hard to give them any shots when you’re always in the offensive zone. As long as we stay on teams like that, we should get a good amount of shots and a good amount of goals.”
It didn’t look like it would end up this way during the first period where looking at the plays made, these teams looked more competitive than they were in their last game against the Buffs. The second period is when the floodgates opened and the Sun Devils, who scored three goals. The dominance would continue into the next period where they scored four goals, with two goals coming from Walker.
“It’s really exciting,” Ellis said. “It’s a lot more fun and you have a lot more energy when you’re playing at your top level. We had issues in the past playing down to teams and we sure didn’t do that this weekend.”
“We started our week of practice really strong with a guest appearance from Greg Powers,” Murphy said. “That fed into the week of practices that fed into the games. Lindsey kept the ball rolling with the rest of our practices that weekend. We had some high-intensity practices and it really translated into this game.”
Another big theme in the game was that it was Mason Walker’s 100th career game. Walker has 23 points this season in 15 games this season and he leads the team in goals and points. He added two goals and an assist in this game. He has become a great and beloved part of this team.
“He is such a great veteran presence on the team,” Murphy said. “You can really feel his leadership. He leads by example, he leads through his words, he’s a great player to have on the team, on the bench, around us all the time. It’s really nice to have him out there and it’s so simple to say he’s an amazing hockey player. He has that IQ, he has the speed, he’s all around a fantastic hockey player.”
“Mason coming in as a veteran, not only a veteran but a past national championship at the college level is such a presence in our program, our young program we never had before,” Ellis said. “I think that’s super important and anything he says, everyone listens and he’s obviously a very skilled player. We’re happy, very happy with Mason’s play.”
Walker himself was very humble with his feelings about the milestone and his own personal game today.
“I’m hurting,” Walker said. “My body hurts but also very excited.”
In all seriousness, Walker went on to share his feelings about the program.
“It’s definitely special playing here at ASU,” Walker said. “I would’ve never imagined playing hockey in the literal desert. I think it just boils down to we have a great team dynamic. Every time we show up, we’re showing up for each other. The girls in the locker room are awesome and it’s just a good community to play in.”
He wasn’t the only player who had a great game today. Sam Murphy had her name all over the game. She was a great two-way presence on the ice and had quite a bit of shots today. She eventually picked up a goal from a shot she ripped top shelf.
“So I had the puck behind the net and I had seen all game that when we’re working behind the goal line, they’re giving us an ally right to the net. For the majority of the game, I was walking up the wall but I said you know what, I’m going to open up and try to roof it. It went in and I finally got the monkey off my back for the season.”
This is only Murphy’s second series back in Tempe after transferring back to the club over the winter. Yet, she’s been able to fit back in with no issue.
“I can definitely contribute that to how kind the girls on the team are,” Murphy said. “They’ve really made me feel welcomed coming back in which is hard for some people and it’s hard having someone come in that you don’t know and they’ve all gone out of their way to extend their arms to me to be good friends and teammates and cheer me on and make me feel confident again.”
She also views this team as a very different team than last season.
“This team is definitely a lot more mature than the team we saw last year,” Murphy said. “We got a really talented forward freshman class in Camryn Kozak and Brittney (Bridel) and Tristan (Craig). Every single freshman that came in this year, we got so much talent there. All of our transfers are so incredibly talented. As you can see (sophomore goaltender) Karsyn Hellman steps up to the plate every game. We’ve grown so much over the past year and it’s really translated onto the ice.”
Coming out of the series against Michigan, the team was brutally honest and mentioned two big things that held them back. Special teams and a lack of high-quality shots stopped them from beating Michigan. That seemed to change in this series.
“I think a lot of work at practice helped us,” Walker said. “A lot of special teams, forecheck, and breakouts. Just sorta nitpicking all the things we got to focus on. It’s getting to the end of the season so those things should start coming to fruition. It’s nice to see everything coming together now.”
“I think with the repetitions over and over, I think that’s what helps us and we’ll continue to do that. We have playoffs coming up so it’s something we’ll continue to improve until then,” Ellis said.
This is the first time in program history that ASU swept Colorado. It’s something that excites this team especially doing it to the team that eliminated them from the playoffs last season.
“I didn’t even realize that until you said it. It’s super exciting,” Ellis said about the series. “The Buffaloes was a team we always had to beat in years past and somebody we’ll probably have to continue competing against for that title.”
Now they head into the final three weeks of the regular season. With the team almost certainly heading to Colorado for the playoffs, the team wants to know that they are a threat.
“It’s really important that they know that we’re not the same team from the past two years,” Ellis said. “Losing is not an option and we’ve already done that multiple times and so we’re ready to get to the national tournament for the first time and playoffs is the first step.”
“I want this league to know that the Sun Devils are on the map,” Murphy said. “We are a top-ten team. We are a national contending team. They’ve never seen an Arizona State Sun Devils team like this one and they’re going to be surprised when we make it to nationals.”
“We’re going to be consistent,” Walker said. “We’re going to show up to every single game with the same energy. We’re headed up to Colorado. No matter where we play though, we’re coming for them. We’re going to [expletive] them up.”
ASU plays the Minnesota on Friday, Jan 27th at Mountain America Community Iceplex.
