(Photo: Nicholas Badders/WCSN)
The Arizona State women’s club hockey team hosted Colorado State University late Friday night at Oceanside Ice Arena and won its second game of the season against the Rams with a score of 4-3 in overtime.
With a quick start from the Sun Devils, Dannika Borges went stick side on CSU goaltender Mackenzie Roberts. Borges’ shot went in, putting the Sun Devils up 1-0 only three minutes into the game.
During the rest of the first period, ASU had an abundance of opportunities on net, but were unable to capitalize on any of them. CSU, on the other hand, seemed to be flat most of the first period, resulting in a lack of offense.
By the end of the first period, ASU had 14 shots on net and CSU trailed on the shot counter with 10 shots.
The Rams came out strong into the second period, looking hungry for more offensive play against the Devils, but almost halfway through the second period, Taylor England scored the second goal of the game for the Sun Devils, with assists from Amber Galles and Catherine Jones.
ASU went on the power play less than a minute later from a high sticking call on Colorado State. During the power play, the Sun Devils had multiple chances to put the puck in the net, even at one point having an open net.
The Devils kept their 2-0 lead until 14:21 to go in the third period when Alexandrya Reda scored off a pass from Stephanie Talone, smashing the lead to one goal.
Two minutes later, Catherine Jones scored her first goal of the season and of her collegiate career.
“Oh my god, I needed that,” Jones said after the game. “I had a drought and I wanted to be scoring every game, but then it finally came and that was overwhelming and I felt so good afterwards.”
Borges was then called for a roughing penalty which put CSU on the power play. The Rams took advantage of the man up and Maria King put one away for the Rams making the score 3-2 Devils.
Colorado State continued forward with their offensive push and it paid off. With under six minutes left in the game, CSU tied the score at 3-3 with another goal from Maria King.
The Rams completely turned the game around, leading the Sun Devils 41 to 35 shots on goal.
ASU got its offensive kick back during overtime and had multiple chances to put the game away. With 59.7 seconds left in overtime, senior captain KC McGinley scored on an open net after a CSU player ran into Roberts.
“I love mini games, so that was so fun for me to go into overtime to play three on three and four on four,” said McGinley. “I just tried to rush it and since we have so much ice, I feel a lot better about having one person back so I just went for it.”
The night was eventful for the Sun Devils even though it concluded at 1 a.m., as multiple players finished with a multi-point night, including Jones, who had two assists in addition to her first collegiate goal.
Galles, while not scoring a goal for the first time in a game this season, tallied three assists on the night. “I really noticed that the goaltender was giving up a lot of rebounds so I was making sure to get those shots low on net so somebody could come in and crash the net to get those rebounds.”
The Sun Devils take on the Rams Saturday afternoon for their breast cancer awareness game at 3:30 p.m.
