(Photo: Allyson Cummings/WCSN)
The Arizona State Sun Devils (2-0) skated into their second series of the season against the West Chester Golden Rams after sweeping the Niagra Purple Eagles by a combined score of 12-6. The Golden Rams were seeing their first action of the 2014-15 season, looking to leap ahead of their ESCHL rivals. The Sun Devils were without their top scorer Ryan Ostertag, who posted four goals last weekend, two of which were shorthanded. Lucas Felbel was the man between the pipes for Arizona State, in place of last year’s ACHA Rookie of the Year Robert Levin. Michael Rice started in the net for West Chester, looking to help Coach William Swahl nab his first victory of the season.
The first period was a story of scoring opportunities, or a lack thereof. Arizona State rifled 27 shots on net, while West Chester could only manage 2.
“It was pretty easy. My teammates made it really easy for me. They kept most shots to the outside and didn’t allow second chances,” Felbel said afterwards.
Within seconds, Sean Murphy picked off a faulty pass and dished the puck to Ryan Belonger who put it past Rice on the odd man rush. The Sun Devils did a lot of their work from behind West Chester’s net and the point. Eric Rivard’s centering pass from behind the net provided Tommy Cooney an easy opportunity that put his team up by two. Shortly after, Rivard displayed a spectacular show of stick handling as he beat out two Golden Rams to connect with the twine. Arizona State’s power play was outstanding, adding two additional goals off of shots from the point. Drew Newmeyer ricocheted shot off of Rice’s blocker was tapped in by Chris Blessing. With a couple of minutes left in the period, Belonger set up Ed McGovern from the blue line on another power play. McGovern’s attempt was just wide-left, but Murphy raised his stick and deflected it in. The West Chester forecheck did little to take the pressure off of Rice, as he was constantly under fire with virtually no time to rest.
Comparatively, West Chester played much better in the second period. The Golden Rams had a stronger presence in the neutral zone and were able to spend time in Arizona State territory. However, the Sun Devils’ overwhelming speed became apparent. On one of their few odd man rushes, John Albanese was staring down Felbel until the Sun Devil defenders caught up and poked the puck away. Arizona State was able to negate the Golden Rams’ physicality by simply being able to skate circles around them. Cooney, Murphy, and Blessing all scored their second goals of the night for Arizona State. Cooney took advantage of a power play and crossed Rice up for an easy score. A return pass kicked off of the skate of West Chester’s Shane McGinty and was picked up by Murphy for a breakaway goal. Blessing continued to be in good position as he swung in another rebounded puck off of a shot by Michael Cummings.
In some victories, the third period is where the winning team adds an exclamation mark to the game. However, the third period of this game felt more like an ellipses. The clearly supremely talented Sun Devils did not relent in the slightest. The Golden Rams’ frustration was rising and finally erupted five minutes into the third period, where the two teams engaged in a short scuffle that sent Arizona State’s Jared Morris and West Chester’s brothers Charles and Adrian Case to the penalty box. On that five-minute major, the Sun Devils added a couple more goals. Rivard scored his second goal, flipping the puck in thanks to Drew Newmeyer’s slapshot that hit off of the shell-shocked goalie’s stick. Gianni Mangone gathered a nice pass from Connor Mailey and whizzed it into the net.
A big hit by Murphy by the blue line led to a one-on-one with the goalie for Cummings. Two goals by Mak Barden just added to the ridiculous margin. Mercifully, the clock ran out and Arizona State skated off of the ice as 14-0 victors.
“I think we just played really well,” said Coach Greg Powers. “The guys wanted to prove a point and they did.”
On Saturday, the two teams will face off for the second and final game of the season. Arizona State will likely look to continue put up an exorbitant amount of shots and spread the wealth. West Chester’s focus should be on minimizing their mistakes and giving the Sun Devils the least amount of scoring opportunities as possible. It will be a new game, but considering the differential in talent, a drastically different result should not be expected.
