No. 11 Sun Devils fall to No. 18 Cornell in Overtime Thriller

(Photo: Marina Williams/WCSN)

Tempe – In a 60-minute game, overtime would again be needed between No. 11 Arizona State Sun Devils (16-4-5), and No.18 Cornell (7-4-3). However, the Sun Devils would fall 3-2 in OT for their first time in Mullett Arena history and for the second time this season – the first was against Miami, Ohio.

Of the entire 60-plus minute game, the Sun Devils only seemed to have control in the third period. Down two goals going into the third, the Sun Devils needed a spark to put in bluntly. The 40 minutes of hockey prior mainly had been controlled by the Big Red, which showed on the score sheet.

The third period opened with a new pace for the Sun Devils. They killed off the remaining time on the penalty kill and seemed to go straight to work after that. Three minutes and 30 seconds into the third, senior forward Benji Eckerle got ASU on the board, igniting a spark back in the building that had been lost since the opening eight minutes of the game. Sophomore forward Charlie Schoen found Eckerle on the backhand as he was driving back door on junior goaltender Ian Shane. Eckerle fed a beauty of a pass over to Schoen, who put it over Shane’s left shoulder.

Then, a little under three minutes later, Arizona State lit the lamp again. This time, junior forward Jackson Niedermayer received a pass from senior forward Ryan O’Reilly. O’Reilly found Niedermayer trailing in on the play and threw a pass from the right circle to Niedermayer, who was in the slot.

Just like that, the California native evened the score for ASU. Niedermayer had been plugged into the third line after freshman forward Kyle Smolen was thrown out of the game after delivering a hit to the head on Cornell. Smolen was given a major penalty and a game misconduct.

“You don’t want to take a penalty where you’re gonna lose a guy,” Jackson Niedermayer said. “The opportunity came about – plug right in – we got a lot of depth. It’s easier for anyone to kind of bump up and play that role, and when you’re playing with two guys like Benji and [O’Reilly], who’ve been on fire for the past couple games, it’s simple.”

After that, however, it went back to a Cornell-controlled game.

“I thought we had a really good first six, seven minutes of the game and then gave up a goal,” Powers said. “They had a nice shot for opportunity, and that settled them into their game. We didn’t really manage pucks the way we wanted to. But again, I’m proud of our guys; they went on a nice run. They’re unbeaten in, I think, 10 or 11 games, and then to fight back again down two against that team isn’t easy to do, and they did it tonight to force overtime, which is big for pairwise, so I’m really proud of how they fought back.”

Overtime came, and the Sun Devils still couldn’t control much of the pace, which is rare this season for ASU. Cornell had four shots to Arizona State’s none in the overtime period, and Cornell netted the game-winner, capping off a night that they dominated.

“They were really good in Lake Placid Three On Three.” Powers added. “They outplayed us immensely there in that overtime, and they did it again tonight, which we haven’t been outplayed very much in overtime. Hats off to them that that kid made a hell of a move on [Gratton], and he made a hell of a shot on (junior goaltender) TJ (Semptimphelter), who was really sharp tonight and very good for us.”

After the opening eight minutes of the game, the momentum changed from the hands of the Sun Devils to the Big Red. Cornell silenced the sold-out crowd in Mullett Arena just under nine minutes into the game. Junior forward Ondrej Psenicka picked up a round bound off a shot from the point and fired it past junior goaltender TJ Semptimphelter.

Then, late in the second period, Cornell found their second goal of the night, off an offensive zone face win that allowed them time to set up in the O-zone. Cornell’s prior two tries to take a 2-0 lead had both been called back thanks to video review.

Fundemally, Cornell was the better team, with shots on goal 28-to-17 Cornell, faceoffs 33-to-21 once again in favor of the Big Red. Tomorrow will need to be a reset for the Sun Devils if they want to keep pushing toward a postseason berth in their final season as an independent.

“Manage pucks, and you can’t go east, west, and south against them,” Powers said. “You have to go north, and you have to put pucks in behind them. You have to establish the forecheck a little bit better than we did today. Everything that we generated was when we did established the forecheck and scored a couple of nice goals. The one was off the rush [Schoen] made a nice play to [Szmagaj], but we got to tighten things up in the D-zone a little bit. I thought that coming back into our zone; we were sloppy and a little bit all over the place at times. So we have to be a lot better in our D zone and be a little more structured.”

The Sun Devils will have another chance Saturday, Jan. 13, to beat Cornell, puck drops at 5 p.m. MST.