No.16 Sun Devils upset No.2 Denver in OT 6-5 Thriller

(Photo: Sammi Maxwell/WCSN)

Tempe, AZ – For the first time since 2019, the No.16 Arizona State Sun Devil (7-1-1) defeat the No.2 Denver Pioneers with a 6-5 overtime thriller.

Tied 5-5 as time ran down in the third period meant extra hockey was going to be needed to close out what had been a back-and-forth battle all night between the No. 2 ranked Pioneers and the No. 16 Sun Devils. Then, just past the halfway point of overtime, graduate forward, and captain Tyler Gratton set the Pioneers packing back to their hotel with their first overtime loss of the year, netting the game winning goal in the slot.

“As soon as (Gratton) got it on his tape, we all felt like he was going to find a way to put it in, and he did,” head coach Greg Powers said. “So it’s a great moment, and a huge win for the program. We’re going to enjoy it tonight. We know how good they’re going to be tomorrow. They’re going to come out really hard and probably a little pissed off, and we got to match that. If I know anything about our group so far, we will.”

While Arizona State got it done in overtime, it didn’t start there. Throughout the night, the Sun Devils had to be “resilient,” as Powers said after the game, repeatedly battling back from being down a goal.

The first period. The Sun Devils controlled the pace of play early, which paid off. Just past the six-minute mark to start the game, ASU got a chance on the power play. Freshman forward Kieran Cebrian gets called for interference, allowing Arizona State an opportunity with the extra man, and they took it by the horns.

One of many for the Jackson brothers opened the scoring as senior forward Ty Jackson brought the fans to their feet as ASU took a 1-0 lead. However, coming down late, Denver answered back with a short-handed goal. Senior forward McKade Webster led a two-on-one back the other way and found junior forward Carter King, who was driving the net to tie the game at 1-1.

The second period comes along, and it’s more of the same. Denver scored first to take the lead this time, but just over a minute later, the second Jackson connection of the night found a way to tie the game at 2-2. Senior forward Dylan Jackson called his own number at the left circle and found the back of the net for his first of three goals on the night and the second power-play goal for ASU.

The back-and-forth nature of the game continued with Denver finding a way to net their second short-handed goal of the night, pushing the game to 3-2 in the second period. It started in the offensive zone of Arizona State, and Sophomore Rieger Lorenz created a turnover, finding the stick of King. King became just the fourth Pioneer to score multiple short-handed goals in a single game. Still, every time Denver scored, Dylan Jackson had a response, answering the Pioneers with his second goal of the night two tie it up at 3-3.

“Again, just resilient,” Powers said. “I mean to give up, especially the one in the second period, the shorty that (Denver) scored…then they go and tie it up 20-30 seconds later. Everything about tonight was just resiliency. It was a group of kids that were going to go downswing no matter what.”

Quickly starting the third, the Pioneers took advantage of their sixth power play of the night to retake the lead, but you know the story. Under a minute later, ASU answered back – tick tac toe. This time, senior forward Lukas Sillinger found the equalizer, 4-4. Again, Denver takes the lead as freshman forward Miko Matikka finds his second of the night and second of the period – 5-4 DU.

But the story was not done yet. Ty Jackson found Dylan Jackson driving the net on the right side to tie the game back at 5-5 with a hat trick by Dylan Jackson, resiliency once more. A back-and-forth battle ensues after, neither team able to get a leg up on the other.

Then Overtime.

Graduate defenseman Brandon Tabakin puts on the brakes just past the blue line – looks up – finds Gratton driving in as a trailer on the play, slides the puck over, and Gratton rips one home in the slot to give Arizona State the win.

A back-and-forth battle between two future NCHC foes ends with Arizona State on top.

“(Denver is) such a good program,” Powers said. “They’re surgical in everything that they do. So well coached, so deep, just coming in waves, just a fun team to play against and a fun team to be on the ice with. So, for the resiliency of our group, they’ve shown it all year. It was really impressive, especially the Jackson line with (Sillinger). Top to bottom, our guys just never wavered. They fought and found a way to get it done.”

And get it done, they did. Arizona State fought tooth and nail as their top line of Sillinger, Ty Jackson and Dylan Jackson came to life, combining for nine points.

“They saved it for what we need the most,” Powers commented on the top line. “They were the best line tonight on the ice, it wasn’t even close. (Denver is) loaded with incredible talent, and (our top line) were incredible. Like they just tilted the ice, they were just playing the right way and managing pucks and getting pucks in behind them when they had to. And forechecking really well and reloading above pucks. They just played the right way, and when they play the right way, they’re incredibly dangerous.”

However, things don’t end here. Game two between Arizona State and Denver occurs in less than 24 hours.

“We got to play again tomorrow,” Gratton said. “They’re a really good team. They’re gonna come out swinging hard. They’re gonna play better than they did tonight. So we gotta make sure that we enjoy this, but tomorrow we gotta turn the page to a new day, a new game. We just gotta make sure that we’re going to be better than we were tonight.”