Sun Devils escape with overtime win on Friday night

With every game meaning so much down the stretch, the Sun Devils needed to have a "get right" game on Friday night on the road in Colorado Springs.

For the first 40 minutes, it was looking that way, but overtime was necessary for Arizona State to pull out the 6-5 win over the Colorado College Tigers.

It took a little more than halfway through the opening frame for the Sun Devils to find their footing, but it was the top line delivering the opening salvo at the 13:12 mark of the first with Bennett Schimek getting his 11th goal of the season on an assist by Cruz Lucius. After being held to 0 shots on goal last Saturday against North Dakota, the need was there for the top line to make their mark, and the early lead was the perfect way to start.

The Sun Devil power play has been potent this season, hanging around the top 10 nationally at 24.2% entering tonight's game. Logan Morrell would stretch the lead to 2-0 with just over 3 minutes before intermission on the first of three power play goals for the Sun Devils on the night. Schimek and Ty Nash would be credited with the assists, and Arizona State would take that 2-0 lead to the break.

Colorado College wasn't going down that easily, tying the game with two goals in the first 1:44 of the 2nd period. Mats Lindgren got his 4th goal of the season from Klavs Veinbergs just 58 seconds in, before former Sun Devil Ryan Alexander tied it up with his 3rd goal of the season just 46 seconds later, assists to Riley Stuart and Mateo Mrsic.

The wild period wasn't cooling down at all as Sam Alfano put his breakaway attempt behind Kaidan Mbereko for his 5th goal of the season at 3:42, assists to Morrell and Carmelo Crandell. Just over 4 minutes later, Alfano would put the lead back to 2 on the power play, assists credited to Schimek and Morrell.

The Sun Devils had one more goal in them for the 2nd period as Ty Nash would join in the multi-point performances up and down the lineup, notching his 5th goal of the season, once again on the power play, from Alfano and Lucius at 13:18. Nash's goal would chase Mbereko, and while Arizona State would get a handful of chances on backup Jackson Unger, the lead would remain 5-2 through 40 minutes of play.

The party stopped real quick once the puck dropped to open the 3rd. Colorado College found their urgency and literally clawed back into the game over the final 20 minutes. Tomas Mrsic made it 5-3 with his third goal of the season from Philippe Blais-Savoie and Mats Lindgren at the 2:41 mark.

Here's where things start to get ugly for the Devils. At the 10:53 mark of the period, Tucker Ness and Justin Kipkie get assessed penalties for cross-checking and interference respectively, giving Colorado College a full 2 minutes of 5-on-3. Needless to say, they did not need the full power play time. Tomas Mrsic notched his second goal of the game to make it 5-4 17 seconds later from Blais-Savoie and Owen Beckner, bringing Ness out of the box. 1:11 later, it was all tied up on Mats Lindgren's second goal of the night, assisted by Gavin Lindberg and Klavs Veinbergs. Thankfully the momentum didn't overwhelm the Sun Devils, as they were able to limp to the finish line and take this game to overtime.

Colorado College had the upper hand to start the overtime period, but a slick pass from Bennett Schimek to Joel Kjellberg set up Kjellberg's second goal of the season, giving the Devils the win and a very important two points in the conference standings.

What plagued Arizona State tonight, as has been a thorn for so many games this season, was the inability to play a complete 60 minutes. The Tigers took control, outshooting the Devils 15-2 in the frame (31-4 shot attempts), ambushing goaltender Connor Hasley at every turn. Sloppy defensive play and untimely penalties were nearly the undoing on Friday night, and are a major factor to why the Sun Devils are fighting for their conference tournament lives.

It's worth noting that senior Johnny Waldron was not listed on the line charts or as a scratch for tonight's game after not practicing this week; his status whether injury or otherwise is unknown.

Despite the near meltdown, the offensive output was a welcome sight as 5 Sun Devils recorded multi-point games; Bennett Schimek (1 G-3 A), Logan Morrell (1 G-2 A), Sam Alfano (2 G-1 A), Cruz Lucius (3 A), and Ty Nash (1 G-1 A).

Around The NCHC

Three other games were in action around the conference on Friday, with only North Dakota idle this weekend. Denver defended home ice in a 4-3 win over Minnesota-Duluth, Miami went on the road to St. Cloud State and came away with a 2-1 win, and Western Michigan convincingly knocked off Omaha with a 5-2 win from Lawson Arena in Kalamazoo. Arizona State sits in a tie for 6th place in the NCHC with Miami at 19 points each, with the Sun Devils holding the tiebreaker by winning the season series with 7 of a possible 12 points over the RedHawks. The Sun Devils are still chasing St. Cloud by a point for 5th place, but have assured themselves that they will finish the weekend no worse than 8th in the conference.

Up Next

Arizona State will look to sweep the weekend series on Saturday night at 6pm from Ed Robson Arena. This game will be streaming nationally on NCHC.tv (subscription required), while Tyler Paley and Alex Coil will have the call on Fox Sports 910 Phoenix.