For the second time in two nights, Sun Devil hockey and the Blugolds tied, ending the game in an exhibition shootout at Oceanside Ice Arena..
Head coach Greg Powers noted yesterday that if his team wanted to win, they'd have to give more than just 75 percent. Tonight, he felt like his team gave more, but the match still resulted in a tie.
“Tonight, I felt like we played better,” he said. “I felt like we controlled the play and I thought our back end struggled.”
The Blugolds were the first team to get on the board. Sophomore forward T.J. Stunz intercepted the puck and found the net wide open for the first goal of the game in period one.
ASU did not take long to join the scoring party.
Junior left wing Ryan Ostertag scored ASU’s first even strength goal of the night, with assists from center Liam Norris and freshman Joe Lappin.
Wisconsin-Eau Claire’s Patrick Moore was called for the tripping penalty at 12:25 in the first period. The Sun Devils then went on the power play for two minutes.
Liam Norris was down the in the slot when he scored a rebound goal. The Sun Devils took the 2-1 lead.
The Blugolds' bench went wild as Junior forward Garret Clemment drove one home. However, the officials called interference, resulting in the goal being overturned.
Both teams went scoreless in the second period.
Just 56 seconds into the third period, the Blugolds tied the game up. Lighting the lamp for his team was sophomore defenseman Lucas Kohls. That was Kohl’s first goal of the season.
The Sun Devils would strike back.
Freshman right wing Joe Lappin found a top shelf goal at the 5:33 mark in the third period. ASU went on to take the 3-2 advantage over the Blugolds.
Wisconsin-Eau Claire would keep things interesting.
Almost three minutes later, Blugolds junior forward Adam Knochenmus scored an even strength goal. The score stayed tied up at 3-3 for the remanding time in regulation.
The two teams were forced to go into a five-minute overtime. For the second night in a row, the teams could not get anything going in overtime play.
Unlike last night, the Sun Devils were victorious in the post-game exhibition shootout.
There was a total of 14 shootout attempts for both teams. ASU junior forward Michael Cummings was the only player who scored a shootout goal between both programs. That was Cummings first goal of the season.
Cummings said his team gave him confidence.
“Coaches were on the bench telling me to shoot it, that made it easy for me," he said. "I knew the goalie was kind of compact and he just left that side open for me, it felt really good.”
Joe Lappin thought the weekend's series was a good learning experience.
“I think its big for us,” he said. “We need to learn how to win games, we did not put them away.”
The Sun Devils will take on ACHA Liberty next Saturday in Tempe, AZ at 7:30 p.m
Reach the reporter at chaz.frazier@asu.edu or follow @chaz_frazier on Twitter.
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