(Photo: Nicholas Badders/WCSN)
Colorado-Boulder outscored Arizona State women’s club hockey team this weekend at Oceanside Ice Arena, winning 4-2 on Friday and 5-3 on Saturday.
The No. 10 ranked Buffaloes aggressively attacked the net in both games. They recorded a lopsided 114 shots on goal between the two contests against Sun Devil goalie Jordan Nash-Boulden.
“I can’t feel my legs. Overall, it’s not too bad. I think I was expecting it to be a little worse,” said the sophomore goalie on Saturday after facing a heavy load of shots on net. “I think, personally, I need to just communicate with my defensemen a little more and shut down some of those high quality scoring chances.”
Indeed, Colorado-Boulder had plenty of good-looking offensive rushes against ASU’s defense with the help of two Buffalo hat tricks.
Colorado center Leah MacArthur scored a hat trick, tallying a goal in each period in the first game of the series on Friday. In the second matchup, her teammate, Maura Keift performed even better recording 4 goals en route to dominantly steal two home wins away from the Sun Devils.
“Our team fought hard. We outshot them a lot. We kept our cool. And we just showed up to play,” explained Mariah Dalley about her team’s performance this weekend. Dalley scored the game-tying goal on Saturday.
Head coach Lindsey Ellis commented about what the Sun Devils need to improve on after the consecutive losses to Colorado.
“Our defensive zone is an area of improvement for us. Also, getting more opportunities on net instead of taking shots from far out is something we are going to work on,” said Ellis.
Although ASU struggled to find ways to bury pucks in the back of the goal, Dannika Borges stood out as an elite playmaker for the Sun Devils.
“I like being open and being in front of the net. It helps get the goals,” said Borges, who lies second on the team in goals scored,“We need more communication and more eagerness to shoot and get the puck on net in order to win!”
Looking to bounce back after two tough losses to Colorado-Boulder, the Sun Devils will search for some wins against Colorado State on Friday, October 13 and Saturday, October 14.
