(Photo: Liesl Babicka/WCSN)
It’s been a long two months – a very long two months that left the No. 15 Arizona State women’s hockey team chomping at the bit for their next competition. Friday night, the Sun Devils finally hit the ice to take on No. 10 University of Minnesota Gophers.
Taking on a higher ranked opponent would show little, however, as the Sun Devils faced off with as much spunk and ferocity as their competition, but fell 5-1 as Minnesota pulled away with three goals in the third period.
“It’s definitely really important to be able to stay in the game and not think you’re completely out of it with a lot of time left to play,” head coach Lindsey Ellis said. “Along with staying positive, we have to hold each other accountable.”
The last time the two teams faced off saw the Devils falling to the Gophers 6-1 in November 2017 with Minnesota racking up over 60 shots on net. If one thing is for certain, it’s that the Sun Devils proved evident growth.
“Jordan [Nash-Boulden] is pretty used to seeing a lot of shots, I mean, especially over the last two years,” Ellis said. “This is the first game this year that she has seen that many shots again, but overall I think she did well.”
The junior goaltender faced 58 shots, saving 53 of them. The most shots she had previously seen in a game this season was 48 against Midland on October 21.
It’s more than just tallies and dubs on a stat sheet that supports the team’s improvement though. It can be heard in any one of the girls shouting, ‘Let’s go Devils!’ while they take the ice, it can be seen in the theme days at practice, it can be shown in their bond as a team.
“It took a little bit of time, definitely, to get to be as comfortable with them as I am now because I didn’t know anyone and I randomly came on the scene,” freshman Finn Larson said. “They’ve been just so amazing and I’ve made so many good friends that I think I’ll have for along time.”
Larson, a Minnesota native, was playing against her hometown team for the first time Friday night and scored the team’s lone goal halfway through the third period.
“I felt, personally, like I had something to prove,” Larson said. “I had to prove I made the right decision to come play hockey in Arizona instead of staying in my home state, which is the state of hockey. I feel like I proved that today.”
The off-ice chemistry seen Friday is something that encourages point production in games and means the team is trending in an upward direction.
“Our team this year, we’re very close, and fun and have a lot of fun on the ice,” defenseman Alisa Manny said. “I think we’re just a young team so it’s going to take a few years for that bond to grow for it to translate on the ice, because we are a younger team, but we’re slowly improving because of the friendships off the ice.”
Friday’s final score nearly mirrored their’s in their last run-in with the Gophers, but Ellis stressed that they need to approach tomorrow with a different mindset.
“They’re not the underdogs anymore,” the head coach said.” We used to be, but we’re not anymore and that mindset has got to go and the effort has to be there from everybody tomorrow.”
“The older girls definitely have that mindset of, ‘Hey, we’ve been at this, we’re ready to go and not be the underdogs,'” Manny said. “But when you’re first coming onto a team, it will always feel that way, when you’re first starting college hockey, it’s always going to feel intimidating, so I mean, it’s going to take all of us to get that mindset for it to really translate on the ice.”
