(Photo: Nicholas Badders/WCSN)
The Arizona State women’s club hockey team finished the first half of the season with its third win against Grand Canyon University Saturday night. For the second evening in a row, the Sun Devils traveled out to Peoria to face the Lopes and came away with a 3-1 win and the first sweep of the rivalry.
Almost exactly three minutes into the game, Catherine Jones picked up right where she left off Friday night, tallying her second goal in as many days. The freshman leads all Sun Devil freshmen with eight points in 14 games played this season, earning herself a good position after starting the season a bit slow.
“I’m so happy this weekend happened,” said Jones after the game. “It’s so perfect to get points every game, it just makes me so happy because I try my best every game and for it to happen is so relieving.”
However, Jones wasn’t the only one to have success for two games in a row. Captains Taylor England and KC McGinley joined Jones in the box score.
England scored a short-handed after a penalty was called on Aubrey Beskid. The Sun Devils dominated what should have been a GCU power play and instead, McGinley set up England for the second goal of the game, just minutes after the team’s first.
With England’s goal, she is now fourth on the Sun Devil leaderboard with four goals this season.
ASU held its 2-0 lead until the middle of the third period with help from goaltender Jordan Nash-Boulden, who only allowed one goal all weekend.
“Incredible. Incredible. She definitely stood on her head,” said head coach Lindsey Ellis. “There were a few 3 on 0’s and she kept her cool and she was able to stop those pucks, we are so grateful to have her.”
In the second period, Hanna Joralmon was exiting the box when the puck found her stick causing a rush toward Nash-Boulden. However, Nash-Boulden stopped the puck and eliminated all chances of Joralmon scoring.
Nash-Boulden faced 36 shots on the night and only one popped in when Sam Baquet took a wrist shot that went top shelf with 12 minutes to go in the third period, a goal that made the score 2-1.
After Baquet’s goal, the Devils huddled together for a small pep talk from Ellis.
“We were just coming together to get our momentum back because we had nothing to hang our heads about and we wanted to show that,” McGinley said.
Grand Canyon continued its push on Nash-Boulden, but nothing was able to get past her. Even with the Sun Devils’ dangerous one goal lead, the team continued to press forward, making more opportunities available in order to finish off the game.
With seven minutes left in the game McGinley, who had made offensive rushes consistently all night, was finally able to conclude a rush with a goal.
“It’s always nice to get a W on someone else’s rink, when all their fans are here and they’re super hype,” McGinley said.
Her goal put her at 15 points for the season so far, which leads the Devils in that category.
With the win, the rivalry between ASU and GCU will only continue to grow stronger in the upcoming years. Since the two teams will not play again this season, the Sun Devils walk away with the season series victory, 3-1-1.
“It feels good, we were on a losing streak and we knew we needed to turn that around,” said Ellis. “This was a good, hard battle, we didn’t lose our heads, we kept calm and we just played hard hockey and it showed on the scoreboards.”
ASU doesn’t play again until Jan. 12 against Assiniboine Community College at Oceanside Ice Arena. The Friday night game will be the first game of a three-game series against Assiniboine.
