ASU Women’s Hockey: Devils fall 5-1 to Midland after strong first period

(Photo: Nicholas Badders/WCSN)

In the first of a two-game series against the Midland Warriors, the Arizona State women’s club hockey team falls 5-1 after a strong first period.

The first period started off offensively strong for the Sun Devils. ASU pressed Midland’s defense in hope to get a stick on the puck. At one point, ASU had a couple of open net opportunities, including a shot on net by defenseman KC McGinley.

Despite their efforts, nothing came out of the Sun Devils’ chances.

“I think we worked on a lot in practice, just picking our heads up and using the available space, but I mean we came out right off the bat, we almost put one in in the first minute,” said goaltender Jordan Nash-Boulden.

Even though Midland ended the first period with 18 shots on net, their offense didn’t seem to generate anything noticeable. Meanwhile, the Sun Devils finished the first period with nine shots on net.

Amber Galles came out of the first period with a quick one on one opportunity with Midland’s goaltender Miranda Bestul. Galles drew the hooking penalty on the play. The power play was then cut short 55 seconds later when Alyssa Ayers hooked a Midland player in the exact same play.

The Warriors scored their first goal of the night during the four on four play. At 15:13, Robin Hatcher received a pass from Isabelle Uhl-Chmiel for a break away to score the first goal of the night for Midland.

Nash-Boulden held the Sun Devils in the game with multiple saves, even some when she was completely down on the ice, but slowly over the second period the Warriors continued their offensive push against the Devils.

Galles tried to give ASU some hope with another break away, but was once again unable to capitalize. With less than five minutes to go in the second period, she drew another penalty, this time for slashing.

But, instead of the Sun Devils scoring, Tieryn Arnes scored a shorthanded goal. She was assisted by Savannah Wright during the two on one making the lead 2-0.

Hatcher wasn’t finished for the night. She tallied her second goal with 42.9 seconds left, Arnes was able to assist her this time. The Warriors went into the third period with a 3-0 lead. After the second period, the Devils only had three more shots on net than they did in the first.

The third period went by quickly, as no goals were scored until 11 minutes left when Arnes had a wrist shot from the slot to make the game 4-0, earning her second goal of the net. Meredith Grothmann and Virginia Cooke earned assists on the goal.

Hatcher received a five-minute cross-checking misconduct that soon resulted in the only goal of the night for the Sun Devils. After all the effort Galles put in on the night, she was able to put one in the back of the net and bring the score to 4-1.

“I thought I did pretty good, I drew a bunch of penalties, I made sure the team kept their heads up, got shots on net and the third period I got that goal when everyone was down,” Galles said on her performance.

The 4-1 score did not last long, however, as Uhl-Chmiel scored an empty net shorthanded goal to finalize the game at 5-1.

“Going into tomorrow, we can’t really dwell on the mistakes we made today and we just have to push past it for tomorrow’s game,” said head coach Lindsey Ellis.

ASU will take on Midland Saturday night at 6:30 p.m. Tomorrow’s game is military appreciation night and the Devils are ready to take on the Warriors with their cameo jerseys.