Sun Devils struggle with “puck luck” in 5-3 defeat against RIT

(Photo: Samantha Maxwell/WCSN)

TEMPE – On a four-game skid following a 5-3 loss to No. 20 RIT (17-6-1) on Saturday, there’s only one emotion surrounding Arizona State men’s hockey (11-16-0) during the weekend series. That feeling is frustration.

It was evident through freshman forward Teddy Lagerback, who took a game misconduct penalty during the closing seconds of the Sun Devils’ defeat on Saturday.

However, this disappointment was most notably on display during head coach Greg Powers’ press conference after his team suffered back-to-back sweeps.

“It’s been a frustrating season with a lot of really tight, close losses,” Powers said. “Not a lot of puck luck… I don’t feel like we’ve caught anybody on an off night yet. It just hasn’t gone our way.”

Even a promising start – one in which the Sun Devils accounted for 12 of the 13 first-period shots – was accompanied by frustration due to continued woes on the man advantage. Despite 11 minutes of powerplay time in the opening frame and three more 5-on-4 chances in the third – though two were abbreviated – ASU failed to convert, making them 1-for-11 on the weekend.

“We had some chances, but again, it didn’t deliver,” Powers said on his team’s powerplay. “The difference in our season right now has been in tight games when it has the chance to win us a game or give us a lead. You go 0-for-7 at home, it’s a tough pill to swallow.”

Freshman forward Ryan Alexander’s seventh goal of the season, which came with less than two minutes to play in the first, gave the Sun Devils a great deal of momentum heading into the intermission.

As a whole, the opening period on Saturday was arguably ASU’s best in a while. The Sun Devils consistently created chances and forced Tigers’ senior goaltender Kolby Matthews to make some difficult stops.

“I thought in the first, we had a pretty offensive period,” senior defenseman Jacob Semik said. “Sometimes the bounces don’t go your way offensively. But I thought tonight, especially in the first, was a good step forward to where we want to be.”

And early in the second, ASU used its momentum to quickly take a two-goal lead. Junior forward Matthew Kopperud caught a pass from sophomore Josh Doan on an odd-man rush and knifed the puck past Matthews just 2:14 into the frame.

But as the period went on, the Sun Devils’ energy seemed to plateau, and RIT began to creep back into the game. Just as ASU lost its juice, the Tigers gained theirs, which soon resulted in two unanswered RIT goals to even the score.

ASU had a similar start to the third, as graduate forward Chris Grando put a wrister behind Matthews with only 27 ticks elapsed. However, the wheels would promptly fall off for the Sun Devils. It took the Tigers 18 seconds to erase their deficit – one they wouldn’t face again.

“It’s frustrating,” Powers said. “It was really great to see Grando pop a big one for us there at the start of the third, and we think we’re going to go play downhill from there. But then they kind of get a stinker on us to tie it up 20 seconds later.”

Fast-forward about two minutes, and RIT senior forward Calvon Boots scored what would stand as the game-winning goal. More powerplay time and high-danger scoring chances towards the tail-end of the contest were to no avail for the Sun Devils, as the Tigers hit an empty-netter with just over a minute left to seal the deal.

With the loss, ASU slides to No. 39 in the PairWise Rankings – a ranking method that mimics that of the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee. With the Sun Devils’ tournament chances narrowing by the game, Powers believes the best approach is to take things game-by-game.

“You can’t think about that [the tournament],” Powers said. “The focus has got to be just one game. We have 12 left, and you can’t win all 12 at once. You’ve got to get one. We have a good team, we really like our team in there.”