ASU Women’s Hockey: Sun Devils blown out by No. 1 Liberty

(Photo Courtesy: Billy Wuneburger)

TEMPE – Arizona State Club Women’s Hockey was blown out in Friday’s loss against No. 1 Liberty Flames, losing 10-2.

With a 54-game winning streak like Liberty has, a strong start could be expected, which is exactly what happened. Junior goaltender Hallie McClelland had to stand strong and even had to stop a lacrosse goal attempt by the Flames as the Sun Devils battled on.

Even with McClelland standing on her head early, she couldn’t stop everything. Sophomore forward Brielle Fussy took a slapshot from the blue line. McClelland stopped the puck but couldn’t stop the rebound put in by her sister, junior forward Brityn Fussy, who gave the Sun Devils a 1-0 advantage, tallying her team-leading 13th point of the season.

McClelland still had to stand strong after the goal as off the faceoff, ASU let junior forward Rianna Spanier get away alone. McClelland managed to stop Spainer cold but her team still hadn’t gotten a single shot on Liberty. More shots rained down on McClelland but McClelland made numerous saves in a row as her team tried to get it out of its zone.

“Obviously not being able to get into the offensive zone plays a huge part in not getting shots. We gotta be in the o-zone to get some shots so we gotta do better with that tomorrow,” head coach Lindsey Ellis said.

Spanier had her revenge in the late minutes of the first period, receiving a pass from behind the net, Spanier deked with the puck from the right side of the net to the left, waiting for McClelland to go down. With no defense to take the puck away, McClelland finally went down and Spanier shot it into the wide empty net putting Liberty up 2-0.

The situation worsened for ASU after senior forward Andi Main was sent to the box for tripping, yielding a Liberty powerplay. McClelland made save after save as bodies piled in front of her to end the first.

The performance was poor for the Sun Devils, who hadn’t put a single shot on net, compared with Liberty’s 21 shots on net.

“We struggle a lot of the time putting the puck on net and kinda generating shots,” said sophomore forward Elle McKenna. “So, that’s something we need to focus on definitely and in I think in the first period getting the puck out of our zone is something we need to work on.”

24 minutes into the game, ASU would have its first shot on the net, which was turned away easily by junior goalie Amanda Storey.

Even with ASU getting two shots on the net, Liberty still controlled the game. Sophomore forward Haley Battles walked into the middle of ASU’s zone and laid a nice shot on the net that would beat McClelland, putting the Flames up 3-0.

As the Sun Devils started getting shots on net, Storey turned them away. On the other side, McClelland had to make two saves in a row to keep the Flames’ offense at bay. Senior forward Jill Ketchum would head to the box right after to put ASU shorthanded once again. McClelland would get some help on the penalty kill as graduate forward Mason Walker blocked a great shot by Liberty, killing the penalty.

As soon as the powerplay expired for Liberty, freshman forward Camryn Kozak exploded out of the box as the puck trickled past a Liberty defender and right to her. Kozak was alone on a breakaway but even with some impressive moves, Storey stood strong to shut down the freshman forward.

McClelland showed she could stop odd-man chances too, as a pass from one side of the zone to the other ended up in an incredible save to keep the score as it was.

Staying out of the box continued to be an issue for ASU, as freshman forward Logan Sutera was sent off. Spanier walked into the zone and once again laid a nice shot that went top-shelf, extending the Flames’ lead to 4.

“We definitely need to work on our power-play, penalty-kill, special teams a bit more,” McKenna said. “I think just getting the right systems together, the right pairings, insuring we’re not giving up those goals.”

Frustrated boiled over, as junior forward Madi Mesenbrink slammed hard into Liberty’s senior forward Linzy Jedrzejek, sending her to the ice. It would take Jedrzejek a couple of minutes to get up, resulting in a five-minute major penalty for Liberty and sending Mesenbrink to the locker rooms. ASU would take yet another penalty on the five-minute major giving Liberty a five-on-three powerplay. Brityn Fussy would give Liberty a fifth goal on this powerplay with a top-shelf snipe. Fussy’s second of the game.

“Our defense needs to be better,” Ellis said. “We can’t let in ten goals. We got some key points to focus on tomorrow and it’s a new day tomorrow.”

Sophomore goalie Karsyn Hellman entered the net for ASU to start the third. It seemed like that could spark momentum for the Sun Devils, who got more challenging shots on Storey. Liberty would take their first penalty of the game not long after for too many men on the ice. Even with ASU managing some good chances, Liberty killed the penalty.

ASU’s hard work paid off. Walker entered the zone and passed backward to junior forward Sydney Paulsen, who took a shot on net that bounced off Storey, right to McKenna who shot it into the empty net. McKenna’s second of the season broke the shutout streak for Storey and added a tally to ASU’s side of things making it 6-1.

Liberty then took a penalty and it looked all good for ASU. However, Liberty was about to remind them why they haven’t lost in 54 games. First, Fussy scored in front of the net to collect the hat trick. A lone hat was thrown on the ice for Liberty which ASU didn’t like at all. Then senior forward Yannick Truter scored a couple of seconds later to add salt to the wound, burying the Sun Devils in an 8-1 lead. Those two goals were scored shorthanded by Liberty.

“Special teams were the reason why we lost tonight,” McKenna said. “Those penalty kills killed us and that’s somewhere we need to improve on for next game.”

McKenna wasn’t giving up yet. As a shot hit Storey, the puck would end up behind her and McKenna would easily deposit it into the empty net, cutting the deficit to 8-2.

“I kinda joke around with my team a lot that I’m this big goal scorer and everyone kinda makes fun of me but I went and scored two goals,” McKenna said about her goals. “I put light shots on the net and they happened to go in.”

Liberty immediately answered back, as Battles’ scored her second of the game. Liberty showed no mercy as freshman forward Brookelyn Beauchamp scored her first of the season by another shot in front of Hellman, which brought Liberty to double digits. A 10-2 game.

That would end the game for the two teams. A slaughter for ASU as they lost the game by eight goals. By the final buzzer, ASU was outshot 51-20.

Improvement in structure was a point of emphasis for coach Ellis. But it seemed like the structure once again fell apart as the team allowed two shorthanded goals and two powerplay goals in the game.

“It’s not our game and I thought we had worked on that a little more in terms of special teams but I guess it’s still not good enough so we got some work to do,” Ellis said.

McKenna added: “It’s a bit upsetting to lose 10-2 on home ice but we know if we play our game that won’t happen tomorrow so that’s something we’re moving past tonight and moving on to tomorrow.”