Sloppy offense took the game away from the Sun Devils. What went wrong?

By: Konstantine Ribeiro

The Arizona State Sun Devils hosted the St. Cloud State Huskies for game 1 of the two-day series as the Sun Devils were looking to bounce back after suffering a 4-1 defeat to Colorado College last week. Things were looking good for the Sun Devils heading into the 3rd period. Despite allowing Tyson Gross to score a goal in the first two minutes of the 2nd period, thanks to a tight pass completed by Finn Loftus, the Sun Devils were able to tie back up thanks to a late goal by sophomore forward Noah Powell with less than three minutes to go. 

Late pressure does the Sun Devils in

Unfortunately, the Sun Devils offense couldn’t handle the pressure in the 3rd, as sloppy passes and poor puck control gave Tyson Gross the opportunity to score another goal for the Huskies and give them a 2-1 lead which eventually turned into a 4-1 lead after the Sun Devils failed to score with the extra attacker after they pulled their goalie out with less than five minutes to go.

“Clearly, we’re not where we want to be. Um, and tonight’s another winnable game.” ASU head coach Greg Powers said. “You know, it was a winnable situation, you know, a young player turned it over twice in the same shift, and it cost us the game, so at some point, our young guys have to get that out of their system, and hopefully they will.” 

However, poor puck control wasn’t the only reason for the Sun Devils loss tonight. Despite having power play opportunities both early in the 1st and 2nd period, the Sun Devils failed to capitalize on those chances when it mattered most.

Face off domination not enough

What makes this loss more upsetting is the fact that the Sun Devils dominated the face-off matchups, winning 61.2% compared to the Huskies winning only 38.8% of them. Overall, the Sun Devils actually played really well; just like the Huskies, they managed to get 34 shots on target, and Sun Devil goalie Samuel Urban managed to save a total of 30 shots despite allowing 2 goals.

In the end, the Huskies unfortunately came out as the better team, as only 10 of their shots were off target compared to the Sun Devils 15, and goalie Patriks Berzins was able to save 33 total shots tonight, the most being in the 2nd period with a total of 17 saves. 

With this loss, the Sun Devils fall to a (13-15-1) overall record and a conference record of (6-10-1). The Sun Devils will be hosting the Huskies again tomorrow for game two of this conference matchup.