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Seven Sun Devils score in ASU hockey victory

ASU was able to convert several different power play opportunities in a rout of Liberty.

Sun Devil forward Liam Norris (25) races the puck against Wisconsin on Friday, February 5, 2016, at the Oceanside Arena in Tempe.

Sun Devil forward Liam Norris (25) races the puck against Wisconsin on Friday, February 5, 2016, at the Oceanside Arena in Tempe.


ASU hockey captured its first shutout of the season in a 7-0 win over Liberty on Saturday,

Freshman goaltender David Jacobson solidified the net for the Sun Devils.

“It feels great, shutouts aren’t just a personal thing,” he said. "It is a team thing, so to pull together as a team and shut them out for 60 minutes felt great.”

Sun Devil hockey spent 3:30 on four power play attempts, but accumulated just two shots on goal during that time.

Head coach Greg Powers talked about the team's first period struggles on the power play.

“We had wide open looks,” he said. "Our guys are just so used to shooting lanes closing so fast that the confidence isn’t there.”

ASU was aggressive in the first half, leading 15-8 in shots on goal and winning the face off battle 14-8.

The aggression allowed ASU to make up for its lack of success on the power play. Junior forward Ryan Belonger converted a top shelf goal off an assist credited to Liam Norris to get the first goal of the game.

ASU pushed the envelop in the second period. By the end, the Sun Devils 18 more shots on goal than Liberty. With 1:18 remaining in the period, Norris scored his second point of the game, and ASU led 3-0 going into the third. 

Liberty’s Zane Schartz was called for the cross-checking penalty at the 8:45 mark in the final period and the Sun Devils seized the moment against a short-handed Flames team. Norris and Belonger worked the puck around, eventually finding freshmen defensemen Nicholas Gushue for the power play goal. That was Gushue’s fourth goal of the season.

ASU didn't stop there. In one of its best periods of the season, it scored four goals.

Freshmen Anthony Croston scored the first goal of the period. On a later power play, freshman forward Joe Lappin received the pass in the slot from freshman forward Jordan Masters to add one. It wasn't the final power play goal; freshman Cody Gylling recorded one late in the period.

By the end of the third, ASU had increased its lead to 7-0 and won the game. Powers said his team improved each period.

“Every period got a little bit better, I thought,” he said. You like to see the progression and that’s what we were trying to do, we were trying to improve on every period we had.”

Sun Devil hockey had a diverse scoring night with seven goals by seven different players.

“I think if we are going score any goals it’s going to have to be by committee,“ Powers said. “It’s going to be by committee and it was tonight, as the game went on we got better.”


Reach the reporter at chaz.frazier@asu.edu or follow @chaz_frazier on Twitter.

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