ASU Women’s Hockey: Penalties kill Sun Devils as they draw tie with GCU

(Photo: Liesl Babicka/WCSN)

With soccer and now women’s hockey, one lesson has been learned in Tempe this season- Arizona State sports cannot escape overtime.

The Arizona State women’s club hockey team started its second season as a club Friday night against Grand Canyon University, who is kicking off its inaugural season.

This was the first time in history that ASU played GCU in women’s hockey and the first game of the two-game series went into overtime with a late push from the Lopes.

All four of ASU’s captains started the game for the Sun Devils. Senior forward Amber Galles, senior forward Dannika Borges and junior forward Taylor England all took the ice at puck drop, as did senior defenseman KC McGinley.

The Devils started off with the rush at the beginning of the game attacking GCU goaltender Haylee Gannaway early on.

At the 15:12 mark, Galles took a penalty for body contact. In women’s hockey, unlike men’s hockey, hitting is at a minimum. However, at the same time Meranda Morgan, GCU defenseman received a tripping penalty. At this point, the game was at it’s first four on four action of the night, however neither team capitalized on anything during that time.

Once Galles came out of the box for the Sun Devils, she became aggressive in front of the net, to try to poke a goal in. But, only minutes later, she was back in the box for a roughing penalty.

Despite the high number of penalties, ASU was able to successfully clearing the puck when they were on the penalty kill for most of the game.

“I am very happy with the PK (penalty kill),”ASU head coach Lindsey Ellis said after the game. “That’s something that we worked on very minimally in practice just because of our numbers.”

The Sun Devils seemed to dominate offensively throughout the game, but the shots on goal said differently. After the first period, ASU only had five shots on goal, while the Lopes tallied up 12 shots.

ASU was never able to catch up with the shot count the rest of the game. The team finished with 20 shots on net and GCU ended the game with 35 shots.

“I think we definitely need to pick up the rebounds in front of the net, I think we need more shots, but those rebounds would be key tomorrow,” GCU head coach Natalie Rossi said following the tie.

After aquiring two penalties , Galles took advantage of the Grand Canyon defense in the middle of the second period.

At the GCU blue line, a defenseman fumbled with the puck and Galles swept the puck up moving forward to net. Galles shot straight between goalie Haylee Gannaway’s legs. At first it appeared as if the shot was covered, but the referee then blew his whistle.

It turned out that the puck from Galles squeaked past Gannaway’s legs and went over the goal line. As a result, ASU had their first goal of the season and took a 1-0 lead over the Lopes.

In the final minutes of the second period, GCU made a push to tie the game, but as time flew by the Lopes couldn’t put one in the back of the net.

Coming off the second intermission, both teams took a handful of penalties in the third period, a common theme all night long, as the entire game was dominated off of penalties.

With 6:45 left in the third period and the Lopes on a power play, GCU forward Emily Exner, took advantage of the man up on ASU and scored the game tying goal, tying the game at 1-1.

“I want the one back, I think I am just critical with myself, but statistically and personally I feel like I had a really good game,” said sophomore goaltender Jordan Nash-Boulden.

Nash-Boulden did indeed have a good game, as she stopped 34 of the 35 shots that came her way for a .971 save percentage in the contest.

With neither team able to score in the final minutes of the third period, regulation time ended and moved into overtime play. Even in overtime, the penalties were not lacking as several more were handed out in the extra time.

The game would then conclude in a 1-1 tie. Neither team will dwell on only ending in a draw, however, because they will be playing each other again soon.

“We know what we are facing tomorrow and obviously, we need to work on our defensive game more,” said Ellis. “Penalties obviously killed us this game so, we need to keep our cool and play a little more defense tomorrow.”

Saturday’s game starts at 6:30 p.m. at Oceanside Ice Arena in Tempe.

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