Friday night was supposed to be a blowout.
The Sun Devils (15-0-0) were able to get the win, but a 3-2 victory against an unranked Colorado (1-6-1) team with one win on the season was not what ASU was hoping for.
ASU took an early lead, as it has in every home game this season. The difference Friday was that it took until the waning seconds in the third period to know for sure who would win.
ASU scored the first three goals of the game. The first was a team-leading 12th goal by senior captain Colin Hekle. Though he lost the goal lead, senior forward Kale Dolinski got his ACHA-leading 23rd assist. Senior forward Brian McGinty also had an assist.
After the assist on the first goal, McGinty decided to score a goal, and deflected a shot from the point from freshman defenseman Alex Temby. It was McGinty’s 11th of the season, which tied Dolinski for second on the team.
The third goal seemed to put the game out of reach, when freshman forward Patrick Yudez slid the puck past CU freshman goalie Alex Palumbo to make the score 3-0 in the second period.
Palumbo would not allow another goal, and his 44 saves were enough to get the Buffaloes back in the game.
Sophomore forward Eddie Lang put in the first goal for CU, and was followed 64 seconds later by junior defenseman Hurley Kane to bring the game within one.
With two minutes left, CU tried to pull its goalie and get the extra attacker, but was unable to do so. ASU kept the puck in the Buffaloes’ zone for the remainder of the game, and Palumbo was forced to stay in the net. ASU didn’t take many shots, focusing instead on keeping CU from clearing the zone.
The final horn sounded with Palumbo watching helplessly from the net.
The game got chippy at the end, and expect that to carry over to Saturday, where the same two teams will meet at Oceanside Arena at 7:30 p.m.
Reach the reporter at justin.emerson@asu.edu or follow him on Twitter @J15Emerson
