ASU Women’s Hockey: Devils force overtime twice, avoid loss in second day of WWCHL Showcase

(Photo: Nicholas Badders/WCSN)

The Arizona State women’s hockey team walked away with a win and tie against Midland and Air Force Saturday in the second day of the Women’s Western Collegiate Hockey League Showcase.

ASU battled in a close affair for its first game of the day against a familiar foe in Midland, coming back from a three-goal deficit to end the game in a 4-4 tie.

After the Sun Devils tied the score 1-1 just nine seconds into the second period, Midland scored three goals in less than eight minutes, but ASU did not give up or let down. Katharine Jones found the net twice in the game’s final 21 minutes, scoring with less than five seconds to go in both the second and third periods.

With Jones’ last-second goal in the second, the Sun Devils faced a two-goal deficit heading into the third period, but the team continued its trend of late success.

“It’s always tough when you’re first starting off a game and we haven’t seen these guys yet so it’s an adjustment, but we’ve always been a pretty good team late in games,” goaltender Jordan Nash-Boulden said. “We start to pick up on things, pick up on their habits. You see us jumping in front of their passes because we were in the right spot and had a feel for what they were going to do.”

Unlike the slower pace against Denver Friday night, both teams were consistent with a strong pace from the start. Tieryn Arens opened up the scoring match less than four minutes into the game following two penalties on the Warriors.

Nine seconds into the second period, freshman forward Amy Gulliksen tallied her first collegiate goal for the Sun Devils.

Five minutes later Ashlyn Sunderman took a slap shot from the slot that went in but was called back because the net was knocked off by Midland goalie Hailey Huff.

Arens took advantage of a poor line change for ASU soon after and scored on a breakaway on to break the tie.

As time ticked down, the second period became messy. Over the middle 20 minutes, the Devils were called on five separate penalties including two 5-on-3 opportunities for the Warriors, one of which that led to a goal.

Meredith Grothmann struck first for the Warriors during the first 5-on-3 to extend the lead to 3-1. Grothmann’s goal eliminated one penalty, so then the Devils were only down one player in the box.

The penalties did not end there as two more minors were called after the third Midland goal, giving the Warriors significant time with an advantage. They took what at the time appeared to be the final stab at ASU with Kelsey Beebe’s goal while on the power play to extend the lead to 4-1.

“I didn’t lose hope the whole time, Jones said. “I just had this feeling that we had something, and we were going to build off it, I kept my hopes up and it paid off.”

The period quickly came to an end but before the teams could head into the locker room, Jones poked one in with 4.6 seconds left to give the Sun Devils a glimmer of hope.

Her goal turned the tides for the Devils, who look like a different team in the third after a period that to the team, felt unbalanced with how penalties were called.

“After the second period, Gibber [assistant coach Kaley Marino] made a fantastic point in the locker room,” Nash-Boulden said. “She told us that we can’t be down on ourselves because of bad calls, that we have to win in spite of those. That was something we all really took forward and it showed. We weren’t frustrated in the third period, we had a goal in mind and we went out and got there.”

It wasn’t until nine minutes into the final frame of regulation that Gulliksen tallied her second goal of the game.

“It was really exciting,” Gulliksen said. “I’m finally gaining confidence in myself and I’ve always been someone who is more of a passer because I’m not as confident but getting those two goals really helped my confidence.”

Midland was able to hang on to its one goal lead until head coach Lindsey Ellis pulled Nash-Boulden from the net, added a sixth skater and called a timeout to set up the game’s final 60 seconds.

With 3.5 seconds remaining, Gulliksen crossed the puck in front of the net to Jones’ stick, which connected to barely deflect it passed Huff.

“We were so pumped up and ready for the game, we all wanted it so bad,” Gulliksen said. “I think Midland has been so strong and they might’ve come out thinking they were going to win so we kept our eyes on that.”

Jones’ second goal with time nearly expired forced Midland into overtime, where the two teams battled for five minutes in a manner similar to that of the third period. Neither the Warriors or Devils could score, ending the game at 4-4.

“It’s definitely a win in our book because they are a ranked team and it’s a huge deal to tie a ranked program,” Jones said. “It’s a huge deal for us, everybody is happy and everybody is excited, it’s going to propel us forward, all that hard work finally meant something.”

“Before the game started, we told them they can win any game in the world, you just have to believe in it,” Ellis said. “This is the first game that we’ve seen them all come together, and all 21 girls played as a full team. It’s exciting and fun to see it all finally come together.”

After a break in the afternoon, the Sun Devils rested up to prepare themselves for the program’s first match against an Air Force team in their inaugural season.

The Falcons are not an ACHA team however, so the game does not count in the standings, for statistics or in the soon-to-be-released rankings.

The Sun Devils went into overtime again but topped the Falcons 3-2 in ASU’s third game of the WWCHL Showcase.

In the first two periods of the game, ASU dominated in the shot column, taking shot after shot on Air Force goaltender Kayla St. Pierre. Despite the plethora of shots, the Sun Devils didn’t capitalize on any of their shots until early in the second period.

After a faceoff win, Sheridan Gloyd got a shot off that deflected off Abby Steinman to give the Devils a 1-0 lead.

The Falcons fought back as Sarah Warner came down the line to take a shot that went bar down past freshman goalie Landry Phelps to tie the game. Air Force wasn’t finished as the Falcons took their first lead of the tournament with a goal from Caitlin Sullivan after eight minutes of tied action.

“I think we started playing down to their level,” Phelps said. “We worked it out in the end, but I think we need to learn to play our game instead of playing down to their game.”

Sheridan Gloyd put hope into the heads of the Devils with a wrap-around backhanded shot with 1:45 left in regulation to push the game into overtime once again for ASU.

“It was really nice,” Gloyd said. “I normally don’t get that many goals playing defense.”

The game winning goal came from Jones halfway through an overtime period that was dominated by shots from the Devils.

ASU finished the game with 103 attempted shots on St. Pierre, a save percentage of .971 in the game for the goalie.

“I think what we were doing was shooting at her and not pick corners and look for an opening in the net,” Jones said. “I think that was the problem and I think once we changed that it got better.”

The weekend isn’t over though as the Sun Devils finish the showcase Sunday morning with another game against Midland University at 8:45 a.m.

“It’s going to be all about turn around right now,” Marino said. “Getting fueled and getting rested and then being prepared tomorrow and I’m not worried about that because I think they will be prepared tomorrow because they know what to expect what kind of team we are going to get out of Midland.”