Sun Devils and Tigers play to 3-3 tie

Returning to the home ice of Mullett Arena, the Sun Devils were fresh off a series split at Miami and looking to claim an early 3 points in the NCHC standings in front of their home fans.

Arizona State opened the game with a solid opening 5 minutes of play, outshooting the Tigers 5-2 but losing the battle at the faceoff dot 5-1 at the first media break. Then at the 8:04 mark of the first period, Drew Montgomery opened the scoring with his first goal of the season, assisted by Brayden Schuurman and Fisher Scott. 50 seconds later, Owen Beckner made it 2-0 with his 6th goal of the season on a scramble in front of the net.

After playing disciplined (albeit sluggish) hockey to open the game, Lincoln Kuehne took the first penalty of the game on a tripping call, and Gavin Lindberg made it a 3-0 game at the 14:10 mark, with Brandon Lisowsky and Owen Beckner getting credited with the assists. Goaltender Kaidan Mbereko was perfect in net, stopping all 9 shots he faced, and the Tigers took the 3-0 lead to the locker room at the intermission.

The atmosphere in the Arizona State locker room at intermission must have been uncomfortable, as the Sun Devils started to apply better pressure and show some offensive cohesion. It started to look like maybe it wouldn’t be the Sun Devils’ night after Mbereko was without his stick for nearly a minute with no shots finding the net, but after a penalty to Drew Montgomery for hooking, Jack Beck put the Devils on the board with their first goal of the night at 13:44 of the second on assists from Cruz Lucius and Bennett Schimek. Beck’s arrival has injected some new life into a fairly dormant power play to open the season, with both of his goals this season coming with the man advantage.

As mentioned above, the power play seemed to be coming to life. With Brayden Schuurman in the box on another hooking call, the top power play unit struck again. This time it was Cruz Lucius getting credited with his 8th goal of the season at 17:02, with Bennett Schimek and Jack Beck getting the assists. The Sun Devils would have additional chances in the closing seconds but Mbereko held his ground, allowing the Tigers to escape with the 3-2 lead after 40 minutes of play. Arizona State took over control of the game in the middle frame, outshooting Colorado College 10-5 but still trailing in the faceoff margin.

The third period saw the Tigers assert themselves much more to regain the momentum, but all credit for the Sun Devils staying in this game goes to Samuel Urban. Colorado College answered back with 12 shots against him over the final 20 minutes, and each time he was up to the task making tremendous save after tremendous save. Unfortunately the only thing that Urban could not do was score, and with just under two minutes to play in regulation, Coach Powers pulled Urban for the extra attacker. A shot from deep in the Tigers defensive zone came inches from putting the finishing touches on the game but trickled just wide, setting the Sun Devils up with an offensive zone faceoff following the icing with their top line on the ice.

With the clock ticking down, Bennett Schimek found the back of the net for the 4th time this season on assists from Jack Beck and Braden Boser, and with 1:09 left in regulation, it was a brand new game.

With a point locked up in the conference standings, the teams moved to a 5-minute 3-on-3 overtime period. Arizona State had more chances in the offensive zone, but was unable to find a way to get past Mbereko. Urban was similarly stout in net for the Sun Devils in the overtime period, and the game would go down as a tie with a shootout left to determine the extra point in the standings. Arizona State’s shooters Jack Beck and Cruz Lucius went a perfect 2-for-2, and Urban stopped both shots from Wilson Björck and Bret Link and the Sun Devils held on to claim two conference points.

The offensive stars took home the recognition for Three Stars of the Game; Cruz Lucius was named 3rd Star with a goal and an assist, Bennett Schimek 2nd Star with a goal and two assists, and Jack Beck 1st Star with a goal and two assists. Samuel Urban was decidedly the unspoken hero of the game. After giving up three goals on the first 10 shots faced, he stopped the last 27 shots the Tigers put on him, keeping the Sun Devils in the game long enough to hold on for the tie.

The Sun Devils and Tigers will be back in action on Saturday night in the weekend finale. Puck drop will be at 5pm and will be streaming on NCHC.tv (subscription required). Tyler Paley and Alex Coil will have the radio call on Fox Sports 910 Phoenix.