Arizona State Men’s Ice Hockey traveled east again to face No. 17 Quinnipiac in a two-game series. The Sun Devils fell short in Friday’s game, and then pulled off a big upset on Saturday.
In the first game, the Quinnipiac Bobcats struck first and never looked back. Bobcats senior captain Connor Clifton netted his third goal of the season just over three minutes into the game.
The Sun Devils got into penalty trouble early and it turned out to be the story of the game as Quinnipiac scored three power-play goals.
Quinnipiac’s Bo Pieper scored his ninth goal of the season on the Power Play to go up 2-0 late in the 1st Period.
One goal was scored in the 2nd Period, and it would be the eventual game-winner. Bobcat freshman forward Alex Whelan cushioned the lead to 3-0.
The second power-play goal was scored just under a minute into the 3rd Period. Chase Priskie would tally his first of two goals on the night to extend the Bobcat lead to 4-0.
Arizona State’s Wade Murphy put the Sun Devils on the board with his eighth goal of the season. Tyler Busch would be credited with a nice assist and changing the score to 4-1.
Chase Priskie responded with his second goal of the game for the third Bobcat power-play goal.
Jack Rowe gave the Sun Devils one more goal late in the 3rd Period, and Quinnipiac won the game, 5-2.
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The second game was a much different story for the Arizona State Sun Devils. Sophomore forward Anthony Croston continued his late success by giving ASU the 1-0 lead off a quality assist from the team captain, Dylan Hollman.
Just over two minutes later, Arizona State took advantage of a power-play opportunity. Freshman defenseman Brinson Pasichnuk fired a shot from the top of the offensive zone that made it through traffic in front of Quinnipiac goaltender Andrew Shortridge to make the score 2-0 in favor of the Sun Devils.
Anthony Croston scored his ninth goal of the season, his second of the game, just 22 seconds into the 2nd Period. He wristed a quick shot on goal off a Quinnipiac turnover to net the eventual game winner.
Croston has scored six goals in his last four games. He is now tied with Robbie Baillargeon and Jakob Stridsberg for the team-high in goals this season.
Arizona State would give Quinnipiac six power-play chances in the second game, but the Bobcats would only cash in on one of them this time around. Bobcat leading goal-scorer Tim Clifton netted his 11th goal of the season on the Power Play to make it 3-1.
Four minutes later, Jakob Stridsberg earned his ninth goal of the season. The 2nd Period ended with ASU on top 4-1.
Quinnipiac would get one more goal out of their senior captain Connor Clifton in the 3rd Period.
The Sun Devils earned a 4-2 victory over the No. 17-ranked team in the NCAA. It is their biggest win in program history since beating the then-No. 18 Air Force Falcons back in October of this season, considering the No. 10 Ohio State shootout win counted as a tie.
Freshman goaltender Joey Daccord had a spectacular game. The Ottawa Senators draft pick saved 53 of the 55 Quinnipiac shots-on-goal, some of them game-saving highlight reel saves.
Arizona State will make another trip back east next weekend to take on the Western Michigan Broncos in a two-game series. WMU is now ranked No. 10 in the nation, according to USCHO.com.
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Both games will be in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Puck drop is at 5:00 p.m. MST on Friday and Saturday.