(Photo: Connor Gleason/WCSN)
TEMPE — The first of two contests against Omaha, a couple of weeks out from the conclusion of the regular season, saw Arizona State needing to win by any means necessary. To aid their pursuit, the Sun Devils were going up against an opponent that had lost seven of its last 11 games, whilst having a packed student section and the emotions of four players taking part in one final home series on their side.
ASU had the perfect opportunity. With the Sun Devils at eighth place in the NCHC with 19 points and Omaha one point behind in last place, two wins in regulation against the Mavericks would clinch the eighth and final spot in the NCHC Tournament.
With everything aligning for a season-defining shift in momentum, ASU (13-19-1, 6-14-1 NCHC) instead had no answers in nearly every category in a 4-2 series opener loss to Omaha (11-20-0, 7-14 NCHC) Friday night that extends the Sun Devils’ losing streak to six and officially puts the team in desperation mode.
Adding to a long-standing pattern this season, the first puck drop saw ASU come out aggressive and draw first blood. Five minutes hadn’t even been shaved off the clock before senior forward Cruz Lucius slung a wrist shot into the top-left corner of the net for his first goal since Jan. 2 during the Desert Hockey Classic.
However, all it took was the Mavericks responding with a goal of their own, not even a minute later, to deflate the Sun Devils’ energy and create a domino effect that they couldn’t recover from. Disorganization in offensive execution and constant turnovers was eventually compounded by an interference penalty on senior forward Tucker Ness that allowed Omaha to take the lead in the closing moments of a power play.
“For whatever reason, this team just hasn’t had the resiliency that we’ve seen out of our group the last couple years,” head coach Greg Powers said. “When you get punched, you gotta punch back and we just seem to keep taking punches for whatever reason.”
The second period brought 20 minutes of futility as ASU put up 13 shots on goal to no avail. Two separate turns on the man advantage presented themselves, with the result being one shot making its way to the net.
Outside of self-inflicted wounds, the Sun Devils’ power-play coming up empty on four total chances, along with the entire offensive unit drying up after the first five minutes, was in large part due to Omaha senior goaltender Simon Latkoczy collecting 31 saves and putting up a .939 save percentage.
Although ASU senior goaltender Connor Hasley recorded three more saves, he ended up with a sub .900 save percentage for the fourth time in his last five starts.
“I mean, a year ago we had the number one power-play in college hockey,” Powers said. “It’s all the same messaging, it’s all the same everything. They’re just not executing right now and I think a lot of it’s confidence. They know they’re struggling, and again, these kids care. It didn’t look like it tonight, but I know they do.”
Two minutes into the final period, ASU sealed its fate by literally tripping over itself when a penalty of the same nature from sophomore defenseman Sam Court led to the Mavericks extending their lead off a second score on the power-play.
If it wasn’t official just yet, a mishandled puck creating a two-on-one rush, which Omaha capitalized on for four straight unanswered goals seven minutes later, all but put the contest out of reach.
Lucius cut the deficit in half by taking advantage of Latkoczy leaving the net empty to mark his first multi-goal game since Oct. 18 at Augustana, yet the blare of the final horn signaled that the worst-case scenario was at ASU’s doorstep.
“It’s embarrassing, and hopefully our guys were embarrassed about it,” Powers said. “Again, everything’s the same messaging, it’s the same everything. A year ago, at this point, we were still fighting to win the damn thing. It’s crazy. We never thought we’d be here, but here we are, and there’s only one thing you can do. We can’t go play for them, though. I wish we could.”
The three points awarded to the Mavericks for a regulation win allowed them to leapfrog the Sun Devils in the NCHC standings, moving them down to last place, now in jeopardy of missing the conference tournament altogether.
A team that is a year removed from being the runner-up in the race for the Penrose Cup hasn’t recorded an in-conference sweep in over a calendar year, hasn’t won a game at Mullett Arena since Jan. 10, and has yet to record a victory in the month of February.
Yet, the race still isn’t over, as a win in regulation on Saturday would thrust ASU back into eighth place. Any other scenario will force the Sun Devils to have to take at least one game at No. 9 Denver next week, leaving the messaging going into the series finale quite clear.
“This season’s on the line,” Powers said. “They’ve got to play like it. Don’t worry about the result. The result’s gonna be the result, but the process has not been good for the last month. They’re just so wound-up tight trying to just maybe cheat their way to a win and not play the right way and not do what it takes to get the result that we need. Hopefully tomorrow, the process is right and the result’s what we want.”
