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In two physical games the No. 4 ASU Club Hockey team stormed past No. 7 Oklahoma to collect its third sweep of the season.Oceanside Arena couldn’t even hold back the two teams’ aggression, as a monstrous check by an ASU forward left one of the boards broken in half early on in the first game Friday.
When there’s heavy hitting, there are almost always penalties, and the series was filled with them.
The teams combined for 30 penalties over the weekend, making special teams as important as ever.
“Our special teams at the end of the day won the series for us,” ASU coach Greg Powers said. “Our penalty kill was outstanding. Our power play was good; we had two nice goals (Saturday) on it. And that’s good, that’s bouncing back strong, because last weekend we didn’t have any.”
The team split two games last weekend against the No. 1 team in the country at the time, Lindenwood. That was the team’s only loss of the season, though the second game against the Sooners looked to be in jeopardy.
The two teams traded goals early on and late in the first period, but when Oklahoma scored early in the second, ASU went quiet for a while.
Then with 8:02 left in the second, team captain and sophomore Colin Hekle scored his most important goal of the series to tie the game.
ASU never looked back, outscoring Oklahoma 3-0 in the third.
“To have a captain that scores the big goal at the right time, we have been fortunate enough to have that for four or five years,” Powers said. “Tonight we were struggling down 3-2, really struggling, and that third goal that he scored was just enormous. He just put us on his back and willed us to win.”
It was the fourth of five goals for Hekle during the series and cemented him atop the team’s stat sheet with 11 goals and 15 points so far this season.
“It’s good to have that confidence that once it’s on your stick you’re going to be able to put it in the back of the net,” Heckle said, “Last year when I started out I was having a hard time finishing and getting the puck in the net. So it’s a nice change this year to be able to put it in the net that often.”
Despite the 11-4 goal differential in the two games and ASU winning 5-1 and 6-3, Oklahoma outshot the Sun Devils 41-37 and 35-31.
This meant ASU senior net minder Mark Schacker had to outplay his counterpart to come away with the victories.
Schacker played exceptional, recording a .95 save percentage for the two games.
“We have a great goalie, he held us in both games,” Powers said, “You know he is going to show up every night, and he does. His stats are unreal this year.”
Sophomore Dominic Turilli was one of the defenseman who helped make Schacker’s night a little easier, scoring his first ever career goal to seal the game with 4:21 left in the third.
“It’s great for the momentum. We heard before the game we hadn’t swept Oklahoma in ASU history. So this is big for us,” Turilli said.
ASU will look to continue that momentum when it plays No. 3 Ohio in two games next weekend.
Reach the reporter at jjmckelv@asu.edu
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