Sun Devils knock off unbeaten Miami to open conference play

There was a different feeling throughout the day knowing that Arizona State was getting two important pieces of their roster for this weekend's series.

After sitting out the first six games due to playing games professionally in the ECHL before committing to ASU, Jack Beck made his long awaited debut. Coach Powers long stated that he would immediately slot in to the top 6 forwards as well as on the top power play unit, and tonight's top line was exactly that as Beck was matched up with Cullen Potter and Johnny Waldron.

The Sun Devils also got a major piece back on the blue line with Brasen Boser cleared to play after missing the first 6 games of the season with an injury. In 37 games last season as a freshman, Boser tallied 2 goals and 5 assists for 7 points while also blocking 60 shots.

The game got off to a very inauspicious start as the RedHawks jumped right on the board on the power play at the 2:15 mark of the game on the third goal of the season by Doug Grimes, assisted by Matteo Giampa and Kocha Delic. Coming in to the game averaging 4.85 goals per game, this had the look of getting out of hand very early.

Both teams traded penalties with no change to the score, then with Grimes the goal scorer in the box for cross-checking, Bennett Schimek notched his third goal of the season at the 11:56 mark to tie it up, assisted by Cruz Lucius and Cullen Potter.

The Devils weren't done yet. Just 2:04 later, Sean McGurn put Arizona State in front with his second goal of the season, with Schimek and Lucius each getting their second point of the night on the assists.

The 2-1 score would stay until the first intermission, and would actually stay for the entire middle frame. After getting outshot 9-8 in the opening period, Arizona State controlled play throughout the second period, outshooting the RedHawks 14-4, winning the faceoff battle 10-4, but unable to get anything past goaltender Matteo Drobac. Each team had two power play chances in the period, failing to convert on either opportunity.

The third period saw Miami start to beat a path to the penalty box, but the Sun Devils continued to be unable to convert on any of their chances. Finally on the 4th power play chance of the period after Matteo Giampa tripped Logan Morrell on his way to the empty net, Jack Beck announced his presence with a gorgeous goal off the faceoff win by Schimek, proving Coach Powers' words about the impact he would have on his return.

In desperation mode with 57 seconds left to play, coach Anthony Noreen pulled Drobac once again for the extra attacker, and Cullen Potter finally got his first goal of the season with the empty net to secure the 4-1 win.

After failing to play with much, if any urgency in the second game at Augustana, Arizona State performed well enough in all three phases of the game to win their NCHC opener. They outshot the RedHawks 30-20, edged the faceoff battle 27-26, and converted two of their eight power play opportunities for a 25% success rate.

Bennett Schimek led the team with a 3 point performance (1 G-2A), with Cullen Potter (1 G-1 A) and Cruz Lucius (2 A) joining in multi-point performances.

The Sun Devils will go for the sweep tomorrow at 3pm Arizona time streaming on NCHC.tv.