ASU Hockey: Closer look at Penn State upset

ASU hockey is coming off an upset of No. 6 Penn State Saturday. The coaches and players relive the final moments of their overtime win..

Sun Devil hockey took a one-goal lead into the third period of Friday night’s game with Penn State before falling 6-5 in regulation. Saturday, the team led the Nittany Lions by two goals as they took the ice for the final 20 minutes.

Early in the third, Penn State forward Evan Barratt scored a wraparound goal that ended up on the SportsCenter Top 10 the following day, cutting the Sun Devils’ lead to just one. Nate Sucese then tied the game up with 2:11 remaining in regulation, and it looked as though the Nittany Lions were destined to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat in consecutive games.

The final minutes of regulation went by without another goal, and the teams took to the locker rooms, where head coach Greg Powers reminded his team of what to do if they wanted to return home with a win.

“I told our guys, ‘you guys have been here, somebody step up and win us the game,'” Powers said. “And good old Johnny Walker was that guy.”

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Just over a minute into the overtime period, Tyler Busch grabbed a loose puck and passed it up to his linemate, NCAA Division I points leader Johnny Walker, who fired the puck past Peyton Jones to cap off the Sun Devils’ biggest upset in a short program history.

How did Walker cap off his game-winner? He gave the Nittany Lions, who Walker felt had been overly celebratory on their goals, a taste of their own medicine with a celebration of his own.

“They had a couple goals there in the third where I thought their celebrations were a little bit ridiculous, and I don’t think that’s the right way to go about it,” Walker said. “So, I told [Busch] if I scored, I was going to row the boat.”

Walker has been rowing the figurative boat of Sun Devil hockey all season, and he will look to continue to do so, as he is now eight points away from setting a school record for points in a single season.

Walker isn’t the only one doing his part to help the Sun Devils win. Everyone is doing what they need to do in order to reach their goals, but one player stands out. Senior Dylan Hollman, whose three goals over the weekend in Happy Valley allowed him to double his career goal total as a Sun Devil a mere ten games into the season.

Hollman, who wore the “C” on his jersey for a season before giving it up to focus more on his play, sat down with Powers to determine his role for his final season wearing the pitchfork.

“I wanted to be on a line that plays against the other team’s top line,” Hollman said. “Make sure we’re sound defensively, and then any offense we can add is a bonus.”

Next. ASU Hockey: Sun Devils claim first win over top-10 opponent at Penn State. dark

Hollman has thrived in his senior season with some of the offensive weight lifted off his shoulders. Although he will not be back next season, the Sun Devils are in good hands with Walker, Koumontzis, Sandhu and Lemieux, among many others.

All quotes in this article were obtained firsthand by Devils in Detail unless otherwise noted.