(Photo Courtesy: Billy Wuneburger)
Tempe has seen its fair share of upsets recently. The unranked men’s basketball team upset a ranked Michigan team a couple of weeks ago and last week, the unranked men’s hockey program took down number two-ranked Minnesota.
Now No. 7 Arizona State Women’s Hockey (7-1-0) hopes to continue the streak, as they take on the No. 1 Liberty Flames.
It won’t be easy or anywhere close to easy for the Sun Devils, as the Flames have won the past four ACHA championships. They remain the only undefeated team in the ACHA with a record of 9-0-0. Part of the play is stellar goaltending from Alexandra Keith and Amanda Storey. Keith has a .988 save percentage in four games and is fresh off a shutout of Maryville. Amanda Storey has a .939 save percentage and a 1.22 GAA in five games.
“We plan on beating them by crashing the net and getting as many shots as possible,” ASU forward Sydney Paulsen said.
The goaltending tandem has only allowed seven goals in total in Liberty’s nine games. While the play in the net has been spectacular, its attack has been just as great, scoring 47 team goals in nine matches. In comparison, ASU has 26 goals this season in eight games. Liberty’s offense is powered by junior right wing Carly Glover, who leads Liberty in goals with seven and her fellow winger junior Brityn Fussy, who leads the team in points with 12. The two have found chemistry with time split between the first and second line.
“They’re a good structured team so if we play a structured game, we can work around them. We have the skills and the talent to beat them,” forward Tristan Craig said.
Liberty has depth scoring besides Fussy and Glover as well. There are eight players on Liberty’s team that have four or more goals this season. Meanwhile, the Sun Devils have only one player who has achieved that feat.
It also helps that Liberty’s powerplay is firing on all cylinders. They’ve scored 11 times on 22 opportunities on the powerplay, which could hurt ASU if they take a lot of penalties. The Sun Devils have had a strong penalty kill, eliminating the advantage 86.8 percent of the time.
“We gotta play our game and keep our structure. As long as keep our structure, we’ll stay out of the box,” Paulsen said.
“Structure” is a phrase the Sun Devils are using when talking about Liberty’s powerplay, which wasn’t intact when the GCU Lopes handed them their first loss. Head coach Lindsey Ellis made sure this wouldn’t be a recurring issue.
“First of all, we got skated,” said Craig, whose coach had her team skate up and down the rink numerous times. “We’ve really been working on our structure and our powerplay. Should be improved from last game.”
ASU’s powerplay was crucial to the GCU loss. The Sun Devils had 37 powerplay opportunities but scored five times on the advantage. That puts their powerplay at 13.5 percent, ranking them 20th in the ACHA for powerplay scoring.
With ASU’s team made up of mostly freshmen, most of the players haven’t faced the powerhouse team and the underdog feeling can’t help but sneak into the locker rooms.
“I feel a little bit like an underdog,” Craig said.
But as we know especially in recent history, being underdogs doesn’t mean you can’t win.
“Sometimes underdogs win so I’m ok with it,” Craig said.
The last time Liberty faced off against ASU was in November 2021, when Liberty outscored the Sun Devils 16-1 in a two-game series.
The two teams will face off on Dec. 2 and Dec. 3. Puck drop is scheduled for 8 p.m. and 7 p.m., respectively.
