ASU Women’s Hockey: Sun Devils win big in home-opening weekend

The Sun Devils have been nothing short of dominant to start their long homestand.

After winning the first game of the weekend series against the Utah Utes by the score of 6-1, the Devils routed the Utes 11-0 in the finale on Saturday night.

ASU was able to hold Utah to a single score the entire weekend courtesy of a Macy Eide shutout. This marks the second time the sophomore has recorded a shutout this season — her first coming against Denver during the first road series of the year.

“We rely on Jordan [Nash-Boulden] a lot,” said head coach Lindsey Ellis. “And I think it’s really cool for another goalie to come in and get her second shutout of the year.”

The play in net was assisted by the stonch Sun Devil defense, as they killed all five penalties it faced over the course of the contest.

“I thought we did really well,” Ellis said. “In practice we’ve been working on the strong forecheck and I think they have been doing really well in that and definitely minimizing shots on that PK.”

Aside from the strong play on defense and in goal, the offense showed-out once more putting up double digits on the scoreboard for the second time this season. Sophomore Kat Jones slid in a pair of goals, bringing her season tally up to a team-leading 16. Sophomore Abby Steinman netted her first of the year on a sharp-angled wrist shot midway through the second period, ending her pointless drought to start the season. After Steinman’s goal, the roster now has all skaters with at least one point.

Perhaps the most impressive story of the night was freshman Malak Rabuck’s hat-trick. Rabuck scored the first goal of the game to get things started before scoring once in each of the ensuing periods. She has now raised her goal tally to four on season with tonight’s performance.

“I just feel so happy right now,” Rabuck said. “I’m so happy for this team and so happy to be a part of it.”

Coach Ellis noticed Rabuck’s drive to want the three goals and knew her cleanups would provide the opportunity.

“She wanted it tonight,” Ellis said. “She was so happy to be on the ice and following all of her rebounds and so she did really well tonight.”

ASU’s level of play in the first period was also to the pleasure of the team and coach Ellis as ASU put 17 shots on net in the first period alone.

Compared to Friday’s game, where the Devils came out a bit sluggish, ASU kept the offensive pressure all throughout the contest. That amount of offensive pressure ended up carrying over into the final two periods as the Sun Devil’s finished with an astounding 52 shots on goal.

“We kind of just said, ‘we got to pick it up,’” Ellis said referring to the way the team played in the first period. “They picked it up after that.”

The Sun Devils head into winter break with a historic 12-2 record on the season and may be looking to move up in the rankings. ASU currently holds a +54 goal differential, which stands as one of the best in the nation. ASU’s next game will be on Friday, Jan. 24 at home against their rival, Grand Canyon.