History at the Mullett: Sun Devils down Omaha, capture first NCHC victory

(Photo: Marina Williams/WCSN)

It was a night of firsts at Mullett Arena on Saturday night. Graduate forward Artem Shlaine scored his first goal as a member of Arizona State Hockey, Scottsdale native sophomore forward David Hymovitch scored his first goal at Mullett Arena and more importantly, it was the Sun Devils’ first conference win in program history.

Senior defenseman Ty Murchison summed it up best.

“It’s a good time to be alive.”

The Sun Devils are not off the start of the season that they wanted. This weekend series was the first time ASU have played at home in over a month, and it faced tough opponents like then-No. 14 Providence and No. 8 Colorado College. On top of that, the Sun Devils have been bitten by the injury bug and have been missing key players for the majority of the season, like junior forward Cruz Lucius and Shlaine, who returned to the lineup two weeks ago against Northern Michigan.

Despite the tough schedule and injuries, the Sun Devils have played good hockey, losing numerous close games where they matched their opponents play, but a few mistakes just end up in the back of the net.

Everything finally came together for the Sun Devils (4-7-1, 1-3 NCHC) Saturday night in their 3-2 victory over the Omaha Mavericks (3-7, 1-3 NCHC) to secure its first win in the National Collegiate Hockey Conference.

“It’s massive,” Murchison said. “I feel like we’ve been there the last couple of games, and things just haven’t gone our way, but the guys have stuck to it.”

This win ends a three-game skid to open up NCHC play for the Sun Devils. In those three games, the Sun Devils outshot its opponents 115-65. This includes the 4-2 loss the Sun Devils suffered the night before when they outshot the Mavericks 43-23.

“It was a really good hard-fought win after a really, really tough one last night that was a gut-punch for all of us,” head coach Greg Powers said.

The Sun Devils’ problem was not keeping up with opponents in one of the toughest conferences in the nation, they just could not finish their chances.

Saturday night was no different for the Sun Devils in terms of producing scoring chances. The Sun Devils outshot the Mavericks 44-22, with 15 of them coming from the slot compared to the Mavericks’ four. The Sun Devils flipped the script though, and converted for three goals in the same way they have struggled all season; getting to the front of the net.

“We’re still not beating goalies clean and it looks like we’re finally figuring out we don’t have to,” Powers said. “We just put pucks on pads and go to the net and that’s how we scored all three goals. I’m glad our guys are starting to buy into that.”

All three goals scored tonight by the Sun Devils were scored off rebounds and they were all scored in the same location too, just outside of the goal crease and blocker side of freshman goaltender Kevin Reidler.

The Sun Devils struck first in the opening period when they took advantage on a failed clear attempt by the Mavericks. Freshman defenseman Brasen Boser knocked down the puck inside the blue line and flipped the puck in the face off circle to the right of Reidler to cause a scramble in front of the Mavericks net. Sophomore forwards Kyle Smolen found a loose puck that he shot on net, and Shlaine was there to put in the rebound to make it 1-0 Sun Devils.

Then in the second period, the Sun Devils established possession in the Mavericks’ zone and kept up the pressure until a shot from the point by sophomore defenseman Anthony Dowd got deflected on the way to the net, causing the rebound to bounce right to junior forward Ryan Alexander, who had snuck behind an Omaha defender and tapped in the rebound for ASU to take a 2-1 lead.

The Sun Devils added to their lead just 1:18 into the third period when senior forward Ryan Kirwan picked up the puck at the half wall and saw Hymovitch streaking down the slot and crashing the net. Kirwan fired a shot off the pads of Reidler and Hymovitch was there to clean up the rebound as his momentum took him sliding into the boards behind the net to make it 3-1 ASU.

“We had a lot of really good clean looks that the kid made big saves,” Powers said. “You manufacture three goals by doing what we’ve literally practiced and tried to preach for two weeks and it paid off. It was good to see all three of those guys get rewarded, especially (Hymovitch) there in the third and in front of the hometown.”

This is the second weekend in a row that Hymovitch found the back of the net, but the first time he did so in front of the home crowd. The Scottsdale, Arizona native has improved his play well enough to get a promotion to play on the second line along with Kirwan and graduate forward Ty Jackson.

“His IQ is off the charts,” Powers said. He’s sure-handed, he knows what he’s going to do with the puck off the wall in our D-zone. He’s just right now a really reliable guy that is incredibly useful because he’s proven he can play with all the injuries that we have. He’s been a huge key to us competing and getting the win tonight.”

On the defensive side of things, the Sun Devils did not allow the Mavericks much time or space in ASU’s zone to establish possession and create scoring chances. As mentioned earlier, Omaha only had four shots from the slot, and only five other shots were from medium to high danger scoring areas. By the game’s end, senior goaltender Luke Pavicich stopped 20 of 22 shots faced.

“I thought that our guys really managed the game very well,” Powers said. “We were tight-checking and we were getting pucks in.”