ASU hockey's 7-1 win over New Hampshire to close its two-game homestand gave the team consecutive victories for the first time in its NCAA history.
After Friday night's win, ASU (3-4) head coach Greg Powers said the team just tried to win each period and he thought that decidedly winning the third thwarted any momentum Southern New Hampshire was trying to gain heading into Saturday.
That appeared to be the case as ASU wasted no time in the opening period, getting a goal from freshman forward Cody Gylling—the first of his collegiate career— on its first power play opportunity.
In the rematch, the Sun Devils converted five of seven power plays, and they have scored on eight of their last 11 chances with a man advantage.
Later in the period, freshman defenseman Liam McGing added a goal at the 16:22 mark—it was his second point of this season after having just five in the USHL last year.
"We got the power play going again tonight, and that's going to be huge for us going into Wisconsin, so hopefully after this weekend, the guys got some confidence back offensively and we can go there and keep it up," Powers said.
Although Powers said David Jacobson would start on Saturday, it was freshman Ryland Pashovitz who started between the pipes for the Sun Devils. He finished with 14 saves, including an impressive one on a one-timer to deny the Penmen during one of their power plays.
ASU scored three more in the second period. Freshman defenseman Joey Raats took a brief break from assisting others and scored himself. In addition, graduate transfer Brock Krygier and freshman Anthony Croston scored their first collegiate goals .Croston's was ASU's first shorthanded goal of the year.
"I just think that if the defenseman get the puck to the net and the guys go to the net, good things happen," Raats said.
Gylling is just one of the freshmen to make a big impact for the team this year. And on a team with 14 freshmen, he said the new guys have no choice but to make in impact if the team hopes to be successful.
Southern New Hampshire sophomore defenseman Matt McLelland's third-period goal was the first even-strength goal Pashovitz had given up since ASU played UConn a week ago.
However, the Sun Devils put a nice stamp on the victory with two more goals, the latter being Gylling's second of the game. Raats also assisted on both, giving him nine points in just seven games.
"Joey's been good, he's been really good," Powers said. "We knew he was going to be good coming in and he's lived up to it. He's made some defensive freshman mistakes early, but he's really corrected those and he's a skilled defenseman with a high upside."
The Sun Devils outshot Southern New Hampshire 52-14. And in addition to the hefty amount of pucks on net and power play goals, they went 100 percent on the penalty kill.
ASU will look to keep rolling when on its road trip to Madison, Wisconsin, to play a two-game set against the Wisconsin Badgers on Oct. 30 and 31.
"We still have a long way to go, obviously," Powers said. "Southern New Hampshire played hard, but certainly we have stiffer competition ahead. Bouncing back from a tough three-game road trip and five games in eight days, and to come out and outscore our opponent 16-3 in two gamiest says a lot about our group."
Reach the reporter at Justin.Toscano@asu.edu or follow @justintoscano3 on Twitter
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