(Photo: Nicholas Badders/WCSN)
It was an early morning for the Arizona State women’s club hockey team Sunday as they looked to get their first win in the final game of a three-game home stand against the Assiniboine Community College Cougars.
Assiniboine had other ideas, and it was the Cougars who found themselves on the positive side of a 4-0 game on the hands of 43 shots and three points from Sierra Parenteau.
For Arizona State, it was a weekend series of experimentation that included moving players from defense to forward and the like.
ASU defenseman and captain KC McGinley had the chance to play as a forward in Sunday’s game.
“I love to just get out of my head and change it up,” McGinley said. “I had a blast playing forward.”
The new changes in the Sun Devil lines appeared to work well in the first period. While the Cougars dominated in zone control, the Devils’ defense was able to limit the number of open shots, only allowing 8 shots on net and one goal in the entirety of the first period.
For Arizona State head coach Lindsey Ellis, Sunday’s first period was a breath of fresh air after the team struggled at the start the first two nights.”
“Our start today was completely different,” Ellis said. “We had a lot more pep in our step today than we did the rest of the weekend.”
Penalties were the major headline of the first period, with a total of 10 combined minutes of minors, and Arizona State’s Dannika Borges going to the box twice within the first 9 minutes of the game.
The Cougars went on to ratchet up the energy in the second period, on the hands of tape-to-tape passes that the Sun Devils had not seen all season, as Blair Bodie helped ACC take a 2-0 lead just a minute and a half into the second period.
From that moment onward, it was all Cougars. In the second period alone, ACC put 20 shots on ASU goaltender Jordan Nash-Boulden, two of them finding the back of the net, compared to only 4 shots on goal for the Sun Devils in that same period.
“With a lot of teams we’ve faced in Division I, they’re fast,” Ellis commented. “With a team like this, they’re great passers, and that’s what beat us this weekend.”
It was Kenzie Heide of the Cougars who would open up the scoring again in the third period, putting Assiniboine up 4-0 over the Devils. Parenteau picked up an apple, giving her 2 goals and an assist on the day en route to a shutout victory.
For the game, ACC put up 43 shots on net, scoring four times, while ASU was held to just 16 shots the entire game. Brooklyn Elek earned a shutout for ACC, while ASU’s Jordan Nash-Boulden finished the night with a .907 save percentage.
What lies ahead for the Sun Devils? The team gets another few weeks off before playing a crucial two game series against the University of Denver at Oceanside Ice Arena on February 2 and 3.
As for the feeling of playing hockey again after a month off? McGinley put it plainly: “It’s so good to be back.”
