Fighting Hawks pummel Sun Devils in weekend opener

Playing at Ralph Engelstad Arena in Grand Forks is the pinnacle of college hockey. The largest capacity arena in the nation, just below the tier of NHL arenas, it's a moment to soak in for any visiting player.

The Sun Devils seemed to get too caught up in the allure of the arena as they tripped and fell in Friday's opener by a 5-2 final.

There was no encounter with Gibson Homer tonight, as freshman phenom Jan Špunar got the nod between the pipes for the FIghting Hawks, opposite Samuel Urban in his third consecutive start for the Sun Devils.

Right off the bat North Dakota imposed their will, peppering Urban with shots to the tune of a 10-1 margin at the first media timeout at the 8:22 mark of the period. Even the shot attempts were a huge difference at 15-4 in favor of the Fighting Hawks. Eventually the shots reached a breaking point, and Ben Strinden opened the scoring at 11:57 of the first period after working himself into the low slot off a feed from Keaton Verhoeff. Phoenix native Jake Livanavage got the secondary assist, and the Sun Devils found themselves trailing for the 6th game in a row.

North Dakota took their 1-0 lead to the intermission break and came out for the second still maintaining tight control of the action and not allowing Arizona State to develop any momentum. Then at the 8:27 mark, Will Zellers doubled the lead with his 6th goal of the season, with fellow freshman Cole Reschny getting the only assist. Arizona State would get their only man advantage of the night when Bennett Zmolek got sent off for hooking, and just over halfway through the ensuing power play, Kyle Smolen took a pass down low from Cullen Potter to cut the deficit back to a goal with his second tally of the season.

What isn't seen on the scoresheet or the clip above is the way Potter was able to draw three North Dakota defenders into the low slot to open the lane for Smolen to hammer home the shot into the open net.

That goal gave the Sun Devils life and they started to take over the flow of the second half of the period, and with just under two minutes left in the frame, Cruz Lucius got back on the scoresheet with his 9th goal of the season on assists from Bennett Schimek and Brasen Boser. Lucius has now tallied points in 8 of 11 games this season after having his 6-game point streak snapped on Saturday against Colorado College.

With the Devils riding the momentum coming out of the third intermission, Will Zellers put a hard stop to that with his second goal of the game just over a minute in from Dylan James and Abram Wiebe, then Tyler Young tallied his first of the season 36 seconds later after redirecting a shot from point by EJ Emery, and just like that the Sun Devils were back down by two goals. The second goal was briefly reviewed by officials for a possible high stick but no such call was found. North Dakota took full control of the 3rd and added a power play goal from Cody Croal on assists from Ellis Rickwood (second assist of the night) and Tyler Young to put the game away for good.

As has been the case for the early part of this season, the Sun Devils failed to play a complete 60 minutes, and any team across the NCHC will expose that weakness night in and night out. Samuel Urban's play was a bright spot once again, but being only one player, he can't do everything from the crease. Converting the only power play opportunity helps matters as well, but getting outshot 43-21 put the Sun Devils at the bottom of a very high mountain to climb.

Arizona State will be back at it tomorrow night looking for the weekend split. Puck drop from Ralph Engelstad Arena will be at 5:07pm Arizona time, broadcast locally on Fox 10 Xtra and nationally on NCHC.tv (subscription required). Tyler Paley and Alex Coil will have the call on the radio as always on Fox Sports 910 Phoenix.