Coming off of Friday night‘s game, the Sun Devils scored five consecutive goals against Colorado College, including the pair in the shootout, and they looked to have the momentum.
However, that was not the case. No. 20 Colorado College hockey (6-3-1, 1-2-1 NCHC) scored two goals in the second period, which was enough to defeat Arizona State hockey (3-6-1, 1-2-1 NCHC) by a score of 3-1.
“I don’t have a problem with how we played,” Arizona State head coach Greg Powers said. “I thought we played well.”
The Sun Devils had plenty of opportunities to score on the Tigers as they got 36 shots on goal. Senior Colorado College goalie Kaidan Mbereko spoiled the majority of the Arizona State chances as he played excellently tonight.
Powers stuck with freshman goaltender Samuel Urban after Friday night’s shootout. Statistically, Urban played better on Saturday than on Friday, stopping 32 shots for a 94.1% save percentage, but tonight he collected the loss. Urban let in two goals as the Tigers scored one empty net goal.
“Both goalies were really, really good tonight,” Powers said. “Ours played well enough to win us the game, and theirs played really well and won them the game.”
Urban has let in two goals within a two-minute span in the last two games that he has started. One of the goals was close to being called goaltender interference as the Sun Devils unsuccessfully challenged it.
Urban and senior goaltender Connor Hasley have similar numbers this season, with Urban’s being better. Hasley has played in more games, so it will be interesting to see who Powers starts in the coming series.
Powers shook up portions of the lineup from Friday, swapping sophomore forward Noah Powell, freshman forward Carmelo Crandall and defenseman Sam Court for freshman forward Braxton Whitehead, junior defenseman Anthony Dowd and senior defenseman Tucker Ness.
“He (Whitehead) did a really good job,” Powers said. “He drew a penalty for us moving his feet.”
The Sun Devils took only three penalties on the night. In the second period, freshman defenseman Richard Baran took a tripping penalty that the Sun Devils killed off, but a few moments later Ness was called for a tripping penalty of his own. The Sun Devils could not get control of the puck for nearly a minute after the Ness penalty was called. This time, they could not kill the Tigers' power play, allowing the first goal of the night.
Arizona State killed off two of the three penalties successfully, and opponents are now 19% on the power play against the Sun Devils.
The hot-and-cold Sun Devil power play was cold as they went 0-3 on power plays. The Sun Devils sit at a 21.4% power play percentage on the season. Interestingly, Powers went with five forwards on his first power play line compared to three forwards and two defenseman on his second.
“I think we generated a lot of momentum for us, which is really important on the power play,” sophomore forward Cullen Potter said.
Faceoffs were solid again in the game. Sophomore forward Logan Morrell was excellent, going 10-17. Junior center Sean McGurn and senior forward Kyle Smolen both won more than 50% of their faceoffs. Whitehead and Potter both lost more than 50% of their faceoffs.
Freshman forward Jack Beck is legit. He scored his third goal of the season tonight, in the four games he played. Potter and senior forward Johnny Waldron had the assists on Beck’s goal.
“He's (Beck) a super smart guy,” Potter said. “He's really easy to play with.”
Senior forward Cruz Lucius had a goal that the officials called back as they said that Mbereko had caught the puck before it went into the net. If that had counted, the score would have been 2-2 at the time.
On the empty net goal for Colorado College, senior forward Ryan Alexander collected an assist in his first series in Tempe since transferring.
The Sun Devils travel to Grand Forks to play North Dakota next weekend and face another former Sun Devil, graduate goaltender Gibson Homer. The Fighting Hawks sit at 7-3 and are 3-1 in NCHC conference play.
“I think there's some good takeaways and obviously some bad ones, too,” Potter said. “There were definitely glimpses when we were playing as a team, like today when we came out in the first period.”