No. 1 ASU (4-0) skated away with another clean win on Saturday, shutting out the West Chester Golden Rams (0-2) for the second straight night with a 9-0 win at Oceanside Arena in Tempe.
After setting a program record with 14 goals in Friday’s 14-0 win, some of the same stars came out to play on Saturday. ASU dominated power plays, going three of five after converting on six of eight odd man opportunities Friday.
“It’s all confidence,” coach Greg Powers said. “What was really great about this weekend’s power play success was that both units produced. The umbrella guys would go out and get us a ton of good opportunities and momentum and wear them down, and then we throw out our other unit and they’d just keep things simple.”
Sophomore forward Eric Rivard, who put two in the back of the net Friday, opened up the scoring for ASU with his rebound finish on the power play that put the Sun Devils up 1-0. Junior forward Ryan Belonger, who had two goals of his own the previous night, also tallied a power play goal to put ASU up 2-0 after the first period.
West Chester opened up the second period by replacing starting goaltender Michael Rice with Mike Amoroso, a move that stymied the ASU attack for the better part of the period. The dam finally broke with 4:12 remaining in the period, as Rivard spun and fired a wrist shot past Amoroso for his second goal of the night. Just 16 seconds later, freshman forward Jared Morris put in his first career goal to put the Sun Devils up 2-0 after two.
Tensions arose in the third period, as both sides exchanged shoves on multiple occasions that had to be separated by officials. ASU was forced to kill three separate penalties, including a five-on-three situation early in the period.
Powers said he didn’t have a problem with the six penalties given up by ASU on Saturday, except for a Chris Blessing unsportsmanlike conduct penalty that put ASU in a 5-on-3 situation.
“The only penalty I really took an issue with was (Blessing) because he was protected by Mike (Cummings),” he said. “We took a penalty for him, and then he retaliated after the fact and put us down 5-on-3. But all the other ones were just standing up for teammates, and that’s what we do.”
ASU exploded in garbage time, putting up five goals in the span of three minutes from freshman defenseman Ed McGovern, Rivard, Belonger, sophomore defenseman Connor Schmidt, and sophomore forward Chris Burkemper.
Powers didn’t see the offensive explosion coming, but knew his team was due for at least a couple goals in the period.
“I don’t know (what happened),” he said. “We know that it’s not like we try to run up the score on anybody, but we also understand the importance of winning games by seven goals when you can, because that’s what the computer recognizes. We’re aware of that. It’s a stat, and we always try to accomplish that if we can.”
Rivard’s goal gave him a hat-trick for the night to go along with his two assists for a total of five points. It is ASU’s second hat-trick of the season, along with sophomore forward Ryan Ostertag’s trio of goals in the team’s season opener against No. 20 Niagara.
“It good (to get a hat-trick), I guess,” Rivard said. “We’re just looking forward to next week and going to North Dakota (to play No. 6 Minot State). Hopefully we play against some better competition.”
ASU travels to Minot, North Dakota to play the No. 6 Minot State Beavers (2-0) on Friday, Oct. 3.
ADDITIONAL NOTES:
- Sophomore forward Patrick Yudez sat out of Saturday’s game with a minor ankle injury. Powers said that Yudez will be back for next week’s games against Minot State, and that sitting him was just a precautionary measure, calling him an “everyday guy”.
- Powers elected to sit senior forward Liam Norris for Saturday’s game against West Chester to give him a chance to rest after Friday’s 14-0 win. He said that he simply wanted to rest his star center, and that he wanted to avoid a potential Norris injury.
“(West Chester) likes to hit up high, and I didn’t want to lose the best center in the league to a dumb hit,” he said. “I knew we could win without him, so I just rested him.”
THREE STARS (As voted on by media):
First Star: Eric Rivard (Three goals, two assists)
Second Star: Connor Schmidt (One goal)
Third Star: Ryan Belonger (Two goals)
Reach the reporter at fardaya@asu.edu or follow him on Twitter @fardaya15
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