It was all about overtime as the No. 7 ASU club hockey team took on No. 13 Robert Morris in Tempe on Friday and Saturday.
The Sun Devils were hot heading into the weekend, having won six of their last seven games, while Robert Morris was in the opposite position, on a four game losing streak and desperate for points.
As they have done all season, the Sun Devils started the game sluggishly.
“We are a slow start team,” ASU coach Greg Powers said. “Until we start playing a whole sixty minutes we are not going to do anything that we want to accomplish.”
The Eagles scored first, and for the rest of first period ASU and Robert Morris traded power plays.
Robert Morris then scored two goals in two minutes to push its lead to three, but the Sun Devils have been able to come back from similar deficits this season.
“We know that we can score quickly, and it has happened the last three or four games,” forward Pat Lind said. “We have been down and we have had to come back from two or three-goal deficits.”
The Sun Devils’ offense then found a spark at the end of the second period as forward Colin Hekle connected on a great pass to cut the lead to two, giving ASU the momentum heading into the third period.
With a fortunate scuffle in front of the opposing net less than a minute into the third period, the Sun Devils’ offense had brought the game within one.
A couple minutes later, both teams were charged with penalties, and the Sun Devils controlled the puck with only four skaters on the ice.
A hard shot was blocked by Robert Morris goalie Dan Venet, but the rebound was pounced on by ASU to tie the game at three.
After scoring two goals in five minutes, Powers was confident that it was the Sun Devils’ game.
“We were all over them the whole period, so I thought we were going to get it in regulation,” Powers said.
But the third period ended in a defensive struggle, and the game went into overtime.
ASU may have had the momentum, but it was Robert Morris that would finish out the game with a final goal.
“We were pretty pumped up and we were ready to go win that game,” Lind said. “We had a bad line change and we got caught, but there are no excuses. We will sit on this one tonight and come back tomorrow and get a ‘W.’”
Saturday brought the opportunity to respond.
The Sun Devils needed someone to step up and lead the team in the second game. That player was Hekle.
“They came out pretty hard the night before,” Hekle said. “So I knew I had to give a little bit more motivation to the team because we came out flat last night.”
It was scoreless at the end of the first period, but the Sun Devils got off to a much stronger start.
“Our energy was way better,” Powers said. “I think we outplayed them, we outhit them [and] we out-chanced them.”
But Robert Morris again scored first. With the Sun Devils down 1-0, Hekle had to assert himself. With an assist from forward Danny McAuliffe, the score was tied.
“[Hekle] was by far the leader tonight,” Powers said. “We knew he had that in him, he has had it in him all year.”
The nonstop action continued as the Eagles took the lead seven minutes into the third period. A couple seconds later, ASU forward Paul Scola slapped in a goal among a crowd of defenders.
The two teams played into overtime yet again and Hekle had an opportunity to end the game. Off another pass from McAuliffe, Hekle took the puck from the goalie’s left side to his right, but Venet found a way to make the save and send the game to a shootout.
“I tried to go post to post on the goalie, but he got across to make a good save,” Hekle said.
With the crowd on its feet, ASU forward Marc Wilhite struck first, putting the pressure on Robert Morris. ASU goalie Marc Schacker stopped the Eagles’ first two shots, but Robert Morris scored on its third attempt.
After six shootout rounds ASU forward Dave Jantzie took the ice. With a fake shot to the left, Jantzie moved the puck to the back of his stick and flipped the puck high into the net. The arena erupted as ASU split the weekend series.
“I’m happy for Jantzie,” Powers said. “I think that will get his confidence up to win a game for us like that.”
The Sun Devils’ next game will be on Tuesday night when they host Minot State at Oceanside Ice Arena.
Reach the reporter at edmund.hubbard@asu.edu
