(Photo: Marina Williams/WCSN)
TEMPE — A little over week ago, Arizona State forwards Artem Shlaine and Kyle Smolen sat in Mullett Arena’s Media Room fielding questions about the No. 12 Sun Devils’ upcoming NCHC Quarterfinal series.
Towards the end of the press conference, Smolen was asked if the bigger stage added any pressure to a team that’s NCAA Tournament hopes depend on a deep conference tournament run. Expectedly, he asserted that it didn’t. And even though at the time, the Sun Devils didn’t yet know who their first-round adversary was, Smolen outlined the exact mindset they needed to carry to defeat an opponent who, like them, would be fighting to extend their season.
“Be killers,” he said.
That simple adage wasn’t embodied in Game 1 against Minnesota Duluth, a young but talented group that, sitting at No. 42 in the PairWise Rankings, needed to win its conference title to qualify for the 16-team NCAA postseason. While ASU won by a goal, it fell victim to several lapses that made the contest come down to the wire. It needed to be better if it wants to secure a trip to the Frozen Faceoff — a sentiment echoed by players and coaches alike.
Trailing 3-0 after the first period of Game 2, it appeared that killer instinct was still absent. But without Smolen, the Sun Devils (21-13-2, 16-9-1 NCHC) quickly found it, storming all the way back and trading punches with Minnesota Duluth (13-20-3, 9-15-2) before senior forward Ryan Kirwan’s overtime winner secured a trip to St. Paul, Minn. next week.
“Unbelievably well,” head coach Greg Powers said of how his group personified that mindset. “You go down three against a good team and come back. It shows how potent we are, because literally you blinked and it was tied… (Smolen)’s right. The message pretty much the whole game, and you could hear the guys reiterate it, was,‘Play for him. If we compete like him, if we do everything that (Smolen) does, we’ll come out on top.’ And at the end of the day, that’s what they guys decided to do.”
It would have been easy for the Sun Devils to pack it in after such a brutal opening period; they didn’t play poorly per sé and even outshot Minnesota Duluth, 17-13. Like Friday night, though, ASU struggled to get anything going on offense or convert on the few chances it had, and all signs pointed to both teams facing off in a winner-take-all Game 3 on Sunday.
Well, the Sun Devils completely disregarded those signs. There was little panic, if any, within the confines of ASU’s locker room between frames, Powers said. When they returned to the ice for the second, that sense of calm instantly showed.
In a span of four minutes, three graduate Sun Devils — Shlaine, forward Dylan Jackson and defenseman Noah Beck — each lit the lamp, and by the five-minute mark of the middle period, the score was knotted up. A team that looked timid on offense for the first 20 minutes was suddenly willing to put anything on net. ASU wasn’t merely trying to win; everyone on the team firmly believed it was going to emerge victorious. That belief paid off and played a major role in the shift between frames.
“I think we just have a mature team,” Shlaine said. “Coaches came in and they said their piece, that we’re not losing this game. And you just see, there’s no wavering in our game. We just got back into it in the second period and got the job done. Never in anyone’s mind it was kind of thinking,‘Oh, are we going to play Sunday or not?’”
ASU has been no stranger to handling adversity this season. Picked to finish eighth of nine teams in the NCHC Preseason Media Poll, the Sun Devils out-kicked that coverage by concluding their first regular season in the conference at second place. After a 3-7-1 start to the season, ASU went on an 18-6-1 to finish out the campaign.
Resilience is a commonly-used word when describing sports teams, but it truly is applicable to the Sun Devils. It applied once again on Saturday, when Minnesota Duluth took the lead twice more and ASU answered each time. But it isn’t just a resilient team — it’s supposed to be in the position it’s currently in. Most people in the college hockey world simply didn’t acknowledge it.
“You look at the roster, you see how good this team can be,” Shlaine said. “I’m still very amazed to every media member or whatever who picked us (eighth)… I hope we proved that this season, this team is special…”
The ultimate killer on Saturday was Kirwan, who gained a step on junior defenseman Aiden Dubinsky, sliced into the middle and beat freshman goaltender Adam Gajan five-hole. But there’s more work to be done. Sitting at No. 15 in the PairWise and separated from Michigan, the No. 14 team, by 0.0011 points in the RPI, ASU needs to continue being relentless and win at least one game in St. Paul.
In the meantime, the Sun Devils showed they have the ability to end a team’s season — one of the hardest aspects of playing postseason hockey — as any killer would. Nobody on ASU’s side wanted to play a Game 3 on Sunday, and thanks to an all-around resilient effort and flipping on the kill switch at just the right time.
“Tonight was all about compete, all about heart, it was all about effort, it was all about will,” Powers said. “All of those things. It was a slugfest and our guy who now has 25 goals threw the last punch, and luckily it was a knockout punch.”
