(Photo: Marina Williams/WCSN)
TEMPE — For a team that started the season 3-7-1 with a roster that was decimated with injuries to key players, and not to mention the external circumstances that hockey was facing in the state of Arizona, it was only fitting that Arizona State had to persevere through adversity to advance to the next round in playoffs.
“Even though it’s in Arizona, hockey belongs here, you can see the building rocking two nights in a row, like it’s special,” graduate forward Artem Shlaine said.
No. 12 ASU (21-13-2, 16-9-1 NCHC) never held a lead until senior forward Ryan Kirwan’s game-winning goal in overtime — his program-record 25th of the season — to beat Minnesota Duluth (13-20-3, 9-15-2 NCHC), 6-5, in a wild back-and-forth game on Saturday night at Mullett Arena.
Just one night after head coach Greg Powers voiced his displeasure with his team’s effort in their win in game one of the NCHC Quarterfinals, ASU came out flat to start game two. A poor turnover in the neutral zone, a lost race to a loose puck and a defensive lapse quickly put the Sun Devils down 3-0 after the first period.
ASU needed a spark. Powers looked to shake things up in the second by putting junior goaltender Gibson Homer in net to replace senior goaltender Luke Pavicich. Powers said he didn’t think the goals were Pavicich’s fault, but wanted to try anything to put some life into his team, and the results were immediate.
Just a minute and four seconds into the second period, the Sun Devils got on the board when a loose rebound bounced to Shlaine in the slot on a delayed penalty and he found the back of the net. Two minutes later, a blocked shot landed still in the left face off circle and graduate forward Dylan Jackson got to it first and fired a spin-o-rama past freshman goaltender Adam Gajan. Another two minutes later, graduate student defenseman Noah Beck fired a one-timer from the blue line that found its way through traffic. In the first five minutes of the second period, ASU erased the three-goal deficit to tie the game at three.
“There was no panic,” Powers said. “It was a really kind of weird sense of calm and we blinked and it was tied 3-3.”
The Bulldogs tacked on another goal halfway through the second period to take a 4-3 lead, and they kept the lead into the third period. Needing another goal, Shlaine struck again when Brasen Boser took the puck to the bottom of the left circle and sent a pass across the goal crease to Shlaine, who tapped it in.
“Now everybody can truly understand why I was so grumpy the first six games when we didn’t have (Shlaine),” Powers said. “Because I knew how he was going to be the centerpiece of this team. His leadership, just the way he plays. He’s the 200 foot center that wins big face offs and lives for the big moment. He proved that tonight. He’s a hell of a kid, hell of a leader.”
It wouldn’t be tied for long though, because about 90 seconds later, senior forward Dominic James took advantage of a turnover and got to the slot where he buried it in the top left corner of the net to give Duluth the 5-4 lead with just over nine minutes left in regulation.
With six and a half minutes to play, junior forward Cruz Lucius, Dylan Jackson and Bennett Schimek teamed up for a tic-tac-toe sequence to that ended with Schimek firing a one-timer from the bottom of the hashmarks past Gajan to tie the game again, this time at 5-5.
Schimek’s goal forced an overtime period, which hasn’t been kind to the Sun Devils this season as they had a 2-6-2 record in overtime prior to Saturday’s game. It’s not as though ASU has played poorly in those overtimes, it just hasn’t been able to convert its chances. Saturday night though, the Sun Devils flipped the script in the most opportune time.
Despite getting outshot 6-2 in overtime, ASU pulled out the victory when Kirwan received a stretch pass from junior forward Charlie Schoen and took it wide on the left side on the rush and squeaked his shot through the five-hole of Gajan.
“Just seeing the crowd erupt like that, seeing the boys come off the bench, there’s no better feeling,” Kirwan said.
With that goal, Kirwan punched the Sun Devils’ ticket to St. Paul, Minnesota for the NCHC Frozen Faceoff. But it means so much more than that to this program, and the Arizona hockey community. To the community that lost its NHL team and to the program in its first season in a conference that started 3-7-1 with a myriad of injuries and polled to finish second-to-last in the conference, this win means so much more than just a win.
“To give that community and group of people some reprieve and to make them proud of what we’re trying to build here and continuing to build and give them that excitement,” Powers said. “It means everything.”
