(Photo: Marina Williams/WCSN)
In a 3-3 game with twelve minutes to play in the third period, goaltender TJ Semptimphelter found himself without his stick while facing sustained offensive pressure from Alaska Anchorage’s attack.
While senior defenseman Tim Lovell soon gave the netminder his own twig, Semptimphelter was still at a major disadvantage. But as he turned two more point-blank shots, eventually allowing the fourteenth-ranked Sun Devils to clear the puck and alleviate the pressure, one word played in his head over and over.
Compete, compete, compete.
“As a goalie, that’s kind of the only thing you can control,” Semptimphelter said. “There’s going to be bounces and stuff like that. But the beauty of the game is every night, you get to go out and compete for a win, and I wouldn’t want to do it with any other group.”
This wild defensive sequence gave ASU (8-2-1) the jolt it needed, as sophomore forward Charlie Schoen buried a one-timer just over a minute later, a goal that proved the game-winner in a hard-fought 4-3 victory over the Seawolves (5-7-1).
Even with Schoen’s third-period heroics, the win simply wouldn’t have been possible without the play of his netminder. Less than a week removed from allowing six goals on 20 shots against then-No. 2 Denver — an uncharacteristically poor showing — Semptimphelter turned aside all but three of the 28 shots he faced on Friday.
“It was good to see him bounce back, he was himself,” head coach Greg Powers said. “He made some big saves. What I like most about his game was he definitely is going to want that second [goal] back. But the other two went off us… And he didn’t falter. He just stuck with it mentally and made some big saves, and that’s what he does when he’s on his game.”
On offense, however, it was UAA who ultimately refused to falter, tying the game three times before Schoen put the Sun Devils ahead for good. And it didn’t take long for the Seawolves to start battling back.
Less than halfway through the first period, senior forward Ty Jackson tipped in a feed from graduate defenseman Brandon Tabakin, extending his point streak to three games and getting the scoring started. It took UAA under six minutes to erase that deficit, as senior forward Matt Allen fired a wrister that deflected off of a Sun Devil stick and into the roof of the net.
The Seawolves’ final goals had more in common than simply being equalizers. Both goals — a bar-down snipe from Almquist in the second and a third-period drive from senior forward Connor Marritt that deflected off Tabakin’s stick — came in the opening minute of their respective period, shifting the momentum to the visitors’ side as early as possible.
“One of our metrics is to not get scored on in the first two or last two [minutes] of any period, and they did that twice tonight,” Powers said. “That’s such a momentum-killer and such a momentum-giver to them. And credit to them. They came out of the room and both periods and popped one in.”
With a little over five minutes remaining and the score tied at one, ASU had a golden opportunity to retake the lead in the first period, one it wouldn’t relinquish. A hooking call on Seawolves senior forward Jarred White gave the Sun Devils’ lethal power play its first action of the night, a mistake that proved costly.
Despite a sloppy start to its initial man advantage, ASU finally established pressure about midway through. Senior forward Lukas Sillinger and Lovell played catch at the top of the offensive zone trying to find an open look, ending with the defenseman ripping a one-timer from the blue line that sailed into the roof of the net.
Coming into Friday’s game, ASU had the 8th-best power play in the country, operating at a 27.7% success rate. And the Sun Devils once again asserted their dominance in the middle frame, as senior forward Matthew Kopperud notched his team-leading fifth power-play goal that gave his team a 3-2 lead.
“We have four other guys that can move the puck and score,” Lovell said. “It’s not difficult to make a play when you’ve got guys who can find the back of the net and find guys that are open.”
Thanks to a day off in between contests this weekend — ASU is playing a non-traditional Friday-Sunday series due to the home football game on Saturday — it’s entirely possible to see Semptimphelter between the pipes for game two. While Powers said Semptimphelter and sophomore Gibson Homer would split time between the pipes against the Seawolves last weekend, the junior could be given a chance to build off his strong performance with an extra day of rest.
“We’ll look at the tape and figure it out,” Powers said. “He could [start on Sunday], I’d say there’s a chance. I’m not going to make any lineup decisions right now. That’s the benefit I do have of really taking my time through a day off and figuring it out.
“Will you see the exact same lineup? Probably not. But we won and we’re 8-2-1 now on the season, and we’re off to a good start.”
