(Photo: Sam Farsky/WCSN)
There isn’t a lot for a coach to be upset about when their team has won 11 of its last 13 games. That was mostly the case for No. 12 Arizona State hockey, but its most recent Saturday home game against then-No. 19 Colorado College left a sour taste on an otherwise-dominant stretch of hockey.
Up three with 14 minutes remaining, the Sun Devils allowed four consecutive goals en route to an avoidable loss. Such a collapse prompted head coach Greg Powers to say his squad needed to rediscover the “killer instinct” it’s displayed so many times when holding a lead, especially considering the difficult schedule ahead.
In its final 10 contests of the regular-season, ASU was slated to host two current top-five teams and face three more opponents on the road, starting with this weekend’s series at Miami. Entering Friday on a 16-game losing streak, the Redhawks were a team the Sun Devils needed to rekindle that “killer instinct” against if they intended to remain in the hunt for first place in the National Collegiate Hockey Conference (NCHC).
They found that relentless drive and activated it on both nights.
After handily winning the series opener, 7-1, the Sun Devils (16-9-1, 8-4-1 NCHC) scored the contest’s first four goals and was less than one second removed from shutting out Miami (3-21-2, 0-16 NCHC), locking up the two-game sweep with a 4-1 victory.
Although it never trailed on Saturday, ASU was left playing shorthanded less than five minutes into the opening period. As time winded down on Miami’s first power play of the night, graduate forward Artem Shlaine skated towards the net with speed and attempted a wraparound. As he finished his turn, he was caught with a high hit from senior defenseman Spencer Cox and remained down on the ice for several minutes.
Shlaine was eventually stretchered off the ice and taken to a local hospital. On his postgame show on Fox910, Powers said that Shlaine will likely not miss any time due to the injury and was up and moving at the hospital. Despite the positive news coming later on, ASU was still without one of its most important forwards for most of the game.
So, how did the Sun Devils respond to losing such a key piece? By scoring not even three minutes later, of course.
It should come as no surprise that when ASU got its first man advantage of the night, it capitalized. After all, it scored two last night and owns the second-best power play in the nation. After the Sun Devils set up shop in the Redhawks’ zone, graduate forward Lukas Sillinger found senior forward Dylan Jackson alone at the right hash with a clear shooting lane. However, instead of firing a wrister, Jackson hit sophomore forward Kyle Smolen on the back door for an easy goal.
ASU wasn’t finished putting up offense in the opening period, though. From the opening face off, the Sun Devils were buzzing, creating several high-danger scoring chances thanks in part to quick, crisp passing. That exact puck movement is what led to freshman defenseman Sam Court catching the puck in the right face off circle and beating freshman netminder Ethan Dahlmeir five-hole.
While Miami generated a few decent scoring chances on its first power play of the night, it ultimately struggled to get anything going in the attacking zone, finishing the game with only 11 shots on goal. This meant that senior netminder Luke Pavicich had a relatively easy night, but on most occasions, he was up to the task whenever he was needed.
The Redhawks bent but didn’t break for most of the second period as the Sun Devils continued to create opportunities, but with less than nine minutes to play in the frame, the visitors struck again. Freshman defenseman Brasen Boser skated around the offensive zone and passed the puck away, but got a quick return pass, moved towards the right hash and put a wrister past Dahlmeir.
Despite only tallying five shots on goal on the third, junior forward Cruz Lucius made one count for his first goal as a Sun Devil. On a zone entry about midway through the frame, Lucius dropped the puck off for junior forward Bennett Schimek, snuck behind senior defenseman Conner Hutchison and made no mistake when he got the return pass from Schimek, increasing ASU’s lead to 4-0.
From that point on, Miami was down and out, but made sure to spoil what would’ve been Pavicich’s first shutout in a Sun Devil uniform at the very last second — literally. With 0.6 seconds on the clock, Cox took advantage of a net-front scramble and put the puck past a sprawling Pavicich.
With the win and Colorado College’s 3-2 overtime victory over No. 3 Western Michigan, ASU is tied with the Broncos for first place in the NCHC with 34 points. The Sun Devils will be back in action when they host No. 5 Denver on Feb. 7-8.
