(Photo Credit: Sammi Maxwell/WCSN)
At the end of a disastrous and sloppy opening period, No. 13 Arizona State men’s hockey was fortunate to only be trailing Clarkson 1-0. And when sophomore forward Ellis Rickwood slotted home a wrister to double his team’s lead less than six minutes into the middle frame, it appeared the Sun Devils were well on their way to dropping their first game of the inaugural Adirondack Winter Invitational tournament.
The prospect of a comeback seemed even more unlikely because coming into the game, Clarkson was 6-0-1 this season when leading after the first period. But ASU’s (14-3-4) unwavering belief showed during the second half of Friday’s contest, scoring five unanswered goals to defeat the Golden Knights (8-6-1) 5-2 and advance to the Championship game on Saturday.
“They just believe they’re going to get it done,” Powers said. “There was never a doubt, there was never negativity. I think when we cut it to 2-1, it really gave [us] life. And then when we scored early in the third on the power play, there was no doubt on our bench that we were going to win that game, and our guys just conducted themselves like they knew it was going to happen, and they found a way.”
As has been the case for most of the season, a big reason for the Sun Devils remaining within striking distance on Friday was the play of netminder TJ Semptimphelter. Stopping 23 of the 25 shots he faced, the junior was once again stellar between the pipes, consistently bailing out sloppy play in the neutral and defensive zone by stopping several odd-man rushes.
“Unbelievable,” freshman forward Kyle Smolen said of Semptimphelter’s play. “Great kid, first off, and then on top of that, [an] unbelievable hockey player. He kind of seals the deal for us. We have a great lineup up and down, and he kind of shuts the door for us to make us a great team.
“You can’t be a good team without good forwards, you can’t be a good team without good defensemen. You certainly can’t be a good team without a good goalie. So having all those levels checked off, it’s very special.”
Even with Semptimphelter’s strong play, ASU needed an offensive spark to claw back into the game. And junior forward Jackson Neidermayer provided just that, finding the back of the net with an innocent-looking wrister at the halfway point of the middle frame. After receiving the puck high in the offensive zone, Neidermayer recognized his space and fired a shot that graduate netminder Austin Roden couldn’t cleanly block to put his team on the board.
With the goal, Neidermayer extended his personal point streak to four games, notching two goals and two assists during that span. Depth scoring — especially from their bottom-six forward group — has become even more vital to the Sun Devils’ success with the recent injuries to the Jackson brothers, who both routinely played first-line minutes.
“It’s huge, we need everybody to go with those two out,” Powers said. “So these guys are finding a way since the Jacksons went out and we’re still — knock on wood — we have the roster, we’ve got to keep going.”
Fortunately for Powers, ASU enjoyed more depth scoring on Friday. On the man-advantage less than a minute into the third period, an offensive-zone steal by senior forward Lukas Sillinger initiated a quick passing sequence between senior forward Matthew Kopperud and sophomore forward Charlie Schoen, which finished with Schoen firing a one-timer past Roden to knot the game at two.
Prior to Friday’s game, Roden had allowed three or more goals on only three occasions through 11 starts this season, and this dominance was reflected in the stats, as his 1.81 goals against average and .932 save percentage coming into the game were both the second-best in the nation. But his first contest in Lake Placid represented the fourth time he hit this negative milestone, as Smolen gave the Sun Devils their first lead of the game — one they didn’t relinquish — with less than six minutes in the third.
But for Smolen, the game-winning goal meant more. It was his first point since Dec. 1 at Colorado College and his first time lighting the lamp since Oct. 27 at Miami. While the first-year forward’s production has been inconsistent so far, his approach hasn’t changed and he knows the scoring will eventually come.
“As a freshman, I can’t get too down on myself,” Smolen said. “My parents always tell me you can’t get too hard [on yourself], you can’t get too low on yourself. It’s a hard game. There’s a lot of good players in this league and you just got to stick with it. And usually the ones that stick with it are the ones that are going to persevere. So it’s not about getting down on myself, it’s about realizing I can compete at this level.”
Smolen found twine again on Friday, albeit with Clarkson’s net vacant, which came just over a minute after senior forward Tyler Gratton iced the game with an empty-netter of his own. Despite a 5-2 final score, Friday’s game was closely contested throughout, and if not for a mammoth third period, the Sun Devils would likely be playing in tomorrow’s Consolation Game.
Things don’t get any easier for ASU, as it is set to face No. 17 Cornell — who is set to visit Tempe for a two-game series in mid-January — in the Championship Game on Saturday. The Big Red, victors over No. 11 Massachusetts earlier on Friday, play a similar defensive style of hockey to Clarkson. But scouting out the opposition isn’t necessarily the top priority for the Sun Devils, who have plenty to improve upon in their own right.
“We’re going to focus on us, there’s enough there to focus on,” Powers said. “We know how Cornell plays, we’re going to play them three times in the next month. So they’re gonna be a lot like [Clarkson], big, heavy, hard. We’re just going to have to be committed, again, to playing a ground game and getting pucks in behind [defense], establishing a forecheck.”
