Sun Devils outlast No. 1 Denver in massive conference victory

(Photo: Sammy Nute/WCSN)

When senior forward Carter King scored on the power play to draw No. 1 Denver even with four minutes left in the third period, every member of Arizona State men’s hockey must’ve shared a collective sense of defeat.

After all, in the waning moments of the game, they’d just handed the momentum to the undefeated reigning national champions, who entered the weekend on a 21-game winning streak as the clear-cut best team in the country, with virtually no room for error. All of a sudden and unlike most of the game, the pressure was now on ASU.

But that wasn’t how the Sun Devils wanted the remaining four minutes to go. They made sure to change the narrative.

Although it came down to the final seconds, graduate forward Artem Shlaine scored a late goal to help ASU (4-7-1, 2-3 NCHC) storm into Colorado’s capital and come away with a 3-2 victory over the Pioneers (12-1-0, 2-1-0 NCHC). Not only was it head coach Greg Powers’ 300th win, but it was Sun Devils’ first in Magness Arena and is among the largest in program history.

“We felt like that was a result that we earned,” Powers said. “We’ve been playing good hockey the last month and not getting results. It’s a big moment for our guys because they’ve stuck with it, they haven’t strayed and it’s nice to see them get rewarded.”

The Sun Devils likely couldn’t have gotten off to a better start if they tried, as they only needed 35 seconds to break the scoreless tie. Playing fully healthy for the first time since he was a freshman, junior forward Ryan Alexander has done an exceptional job of setting up his linemates in front of the net, and that was no different on Friday.

After smartly throwing the puck at senior goaltender Matt Davis on a wrap-around, Shlaine found the puck lying unattended in the crease. All he needed to do was take a hack at it and make contact to notch his first goal of the game. He did just that, and ASU was in the driver’s seat before all of the Denver faithful got into their seats.

However, the Pioneers have one of the most prolific offenses in the nation, and that was quickly on display following the opening goal. Towards the middle of the period, Denver poured the pressure on ASU for a nearly minute stretch, thanks in part to careless defensive-zone turnovers from the Sun Devils. However, senior netminder Luke Pavicich stood tall and made a few big saves.

With so much pressure, the feeling that Denver would finally break through became more and more potent. And then, it became real. After sophomore forward Kyle Smolen took a hooking penalty, the Pioneers kept ASU moving with crisp passing and eventually found King in the high slot and with space. With bodies in front of the net, King released a wrister on the net that Pavicich didn’t see, tying the game at one.

“They’re so good when they get going and they get moving,” Powers said of Denver. “Their sets, their (defense) especially, how they move, you just have to be a dog on a bone. I thought in the first period, we weren’t very urgent. We didn’t have good sticks. We let them do their thing. Then we really reset and stuck to our plan, and that’s how you have to play these guys.”

When the second period began, however, the Sun Devils appeared to flip a switch. Despite trailing Denver 12-10 in shots on goal heading into the first intermission, ASU outshot the Pioneers 15-6 in the middle period and had its fair share of chances. But early on in the frame, it just couldn’t solve Davis. His biggest save came when freshman defenseman Brasen Boser fired a shot that caromed off the end boards and to a waiting junior forward Bennett Schimek, whose ensuing backhand was somehow kept out by a diving Denver netminder.

Schimek soon got his redemption, though.

At even strength about midway through the stanza, he slipped by the defense on a breakout and received a nice pass from freshman forward Cullen Potter, giving him a clear breakaway.

He didn’t squander that opportunity, stickhandling before beating Davis through his five-hole. The Sun Devils were back ahead and rode that momentum through the rest of the period. While they didn’t cash in and went 0-for-3 on power play Friday, the Sun Devils’ man advantage looked better, too. Their puck movement and willingness to shoot for rebounds was evident, and it resulted in more scoring chances that kept Denver on its toes.

While ASU looked good in the second, the Pioneers came out firing to begin the final frame, entering desperation mode. They outshot the Sun Devils 14-5 in the last 20 minutes, but the visitors mostly stood tall. Completely preventing Denver from generating high-danger looks is impossible, but ASU did its best to limit the chances and was successful early on. It helped that Pavicich made a few timely saves and had some aid from his crossbar, too.

“We had a good game plan and the guys really bought into defending, that’s something we’ve done very well this year, is (buy) into how we need to play on the defensive side of the puck, and you obviously have to do that against Denver if you’re going to have success, and tonight, our guys did a really good job.”

However, one bad bounce seemingly halted all of that progress.

As he attempted to stickhandle his way into the slot, senior forward Jack Devine coughed up the puck, which glided right past freshman defenseman Sam Court. Graduate defenseman Noah Beck then attempted to clear it, but his try went off Devine and right onto the stick of King, who potted his second goal of the night. Just over four minutes remained on the clock, and the Pioneers stole all of the lives of their counterparts.

Gut punch, or so Denver thought.

“I didn’t see anyone with their head down, the energy stayed the same,” Powers said. “We just kept saying to the guys,‘ That one’s not going to beat us. That bounce isn’t going to beat us, we can’t let it.’ And we didn’t.”

It’s only fitting that ASU’s third line of Alexander, Shlaine, and Smolen, which has been ASU’s best of late and combined for five points in game two against Omaha last weekend, was responsible for the game-winning goal. With 45 seconds left, Alexander forced a neutral-zone turnover that allowed Shlaine to skate into the puck, use a defender as a screen and fire a wrister past Davis.

In the waning moments of the game, ASU achieved the improbable. From then on, the Sun Devils needed to shut Denver down for less than a minute and did just that. After one of college hockey’s top dogs gave all it had, ASU came up clutch to pick up their first road victory against Denver in seven tries.

Not to mention it came in NCHC play; the Sun Devils have beaten Denver as recently as last year’s overtime thriller at Mullett Arena, but points in the standings were never up for grabs.

How’s that for a signature conference win?

“It’s big,” Powers said. “It’s just a big, big, big win for our program. We’ve played them to the wire a few times here and we always seem to find a way to not get over the hump, and tonight we did. It’s big… It’s a benchmark win and tomorrow we need another one to get a benchmark sweep.”