No. 15 ASU (14-7-1) rebounded from a shutout loss the night before to No. 19 Clarkson, 3-0, by tying No. 3 Minnesota State, 2-2. Sophomore forward Johnny Walker and freshman forward Jordan Sandhu were the two Sun Devils to score in regulation.
The match eventually reached a shootout, ending the overtime period knotted at two scores apiece. Coach Greg Powers sent Walker, redshirt freshman forward Austin Lemieux and freshman forward PJ Marrocco to shoot the first three shots. All three players missed their attempts.
However, junior goalie Joey Daccord defended his goal as well. He was able to keep out all three of Minnesota State's attempts.
That is when Powers decided to send sophomore defenseman Max Balinson to shoot the fourth shot. Balinson moved across the right side of the rink and shot the puck straight into the net to score the only point in the shootout.
Minnesota State sent sophomore forward Jared Spooner to shoot their team's last attempt, which he missed wide right of the goal.
Powers later commented on what went into his decision to send Balinson to take the Sun Devils' fourth shot in the shootout.
"He's (Balinson) really skilled," Powers said. "He's very good with the puck, and we needed to shoot it. The guys were getting too cute and fancy. I knew 'Bally' was just going to let it go, you know. And he put it in."
The goal to tie the game in regulation came in dramatic fashion. With ASU down one with one minute left in the final period, the Sun Devils emptied their net. After two missed shots by the Sun Devils twenty seconds after emptying their net, Walker scored off of a ricochet to tie the game with just thirty seconds remaining in regulation.
"You know, we've been pressing for awhile. We kind of hit a wall through the second half of the second period," Walker said. "I think we really took care of the first period and played our game and played the game we're capable of."
Daccord finished the game with 29 saves. He continues his impressive goalkeeping, maintaining his top-ten ranking among all goalies in save percentage.
ASU will be back on the ice to take on Boston College on Jan. 4th at 7:05 MST in Tempe, Ariz.
Reach the reporter at jhorst2@asu.edu and follow @HorseySeven on Twitter.
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Jeffrey Horst is the digital editor-in-chief of The State Press. He previously served as the publication's sports editor and worked at Cronkite News and ArizonaSports.com.
