ASU men’s hockey blanks Alaska Fairbanks

ASU men’s hockey welcomed in Alaska Fairbanks for the first series of the home and home this season. These two teams have played each other in home and homes now for the last few seasons as both schools are independent.

Coming into this weekend, ASU ranks 18th in the USCHO poll just on the outside looking into the tournament.

ASU men’s hockey hosts Alaska Fairbanks

First Period

Last night’s game saw the return of Ty Jackson, one of the Sun Devils best players who had been out for 70 days with an undisclosed injury. Captain Tyler Gratton also made his first full start in some time after recovering from an injury.

Coach Greg Powers put Gibson Homer in the net for this game after TJ Semptimphelter struggled last weekend. The first period of play was about as even as it could have been to start a game. Both teams came out extremely aggressive and ready to hit right away.

For the first 10 minutes of the game, both teams had waves of chances at times but the goalies stood tall. Halfway through the first period, Fairbanks was called for an icing that resulted in a faceoff on their end.

ASU won the faceoff and Charlie Schoen ripped one from the faceoff dot into the back of the net. The crowd was buzzing and all of a sudden ASU had all of the momentum for the rest of the period.

Not much transpired after the goal and ASU took a 1-0 lead into the locker room.

Second Period

If you like hard-hitting and fighting this 20-minute exchange is for you. Both teams came out of the locker room fairly conservative. The conservativeness did not last very long.

Seven minutes into the second period Fairbanks goalie Pierce Charelson froze the puck and all chaos ensued in front of him. Multiple players on both sides began to push and shove and ultimately Fairbanks forward Arvils Bergmanis got a cross-checking penalty.

The Sun Devil power play, as it has done so many times, cashed in with a ripper off the skate of Ty Jackson. Lukas Sillinger shot the wrister and Jackson deflected it off his skate into the back of the net.

With the 2-0 lead in hand, the Sun Devils decided to pay back Fairbanks with some aggressiveness of their own.

About halfway through the second period Kyle Smolen laid a check on a Fairbanks player in front of the benches and was called for a game misconduct penalty. Fairbanks went on the power play for five minutes, a potentially huge momentum swing.

Fairbanks had several good looks on the powerplay, but Gibson stood tall in the net and the Sun Devils killed off the penalty.

For the remaining five minutes of the period, both teams were more focused on hitting one another than scoring. With that, the Sun Devils took a 2-0 lead into the locker room.

Third Period

The third period was a street fight for both sides rather than a goal-scoring affair. Many people figured that Fairbanks would come out hot and heavy to begin the period but they did differently. Both teams were laying punishing hits on one another along the boards.

The officials had to determine how they wanted to call the game and they let them play. Roughly six minutes into the period Brian Chambers was called for a slashing penalty. Hits may be allowed but slashing is a penalty you will not get away with regardless of how the game is being officiated.

Fairbanks had a fairly lackluster power play and ASU would kill off another special teams chance.

The remainder of the game was a street fight and both teams were being as scrappy in front of and around the net as they possibly could. Through it all, ASU successfully defended their lead and walked away with a 2-0 win in game one of the series.

Gibson Homer collected his first career collegiate shutout and ASU keeps its tournament hopes alive for another night.

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