DU hockey split a hard-fought series in the desert at Arizona State, winning in overtime on Friday, 5-4, and losing in overtime on Saturday, 6-5.
The first period of the weekend was all Arizona State, who made Denver chase them around the ice and put Denver on their heels early. 17 seconds into the game, Denver took an interference penalty, putting ASU on the powerplay early. At 1:41 into the game, ASU capitalized on the man advantage — a Cruz Lucius one-timer from the left dot that cleanly beat senior goaltender Matt Davis, giving ASU the 1-0 lead early.
The rest of the period was fast-paced back-and-forth hockey with both teams not giving an inch and hard, aggressive forechecking.
At 13:01, sophomore defenseman Garrett Brown made a nice stretch pass to give junior forward Jared Wright a breakaway and Wright beat ASU goaltender Luke Pavicich over the glove to tie the game at 1-1, which continued throughout the rest of the period.
Contrary to the first period, Denver came out flying early in the middle frame and at 2:54, sophomore forward Sam Harris backhanded a shot off an ASU defensive zone turnover and gave DU the 2-1 lead early.
The offense for the Crimson and Gold continued at 7:42 when sophomore defenseman Boston Buckberger sniped Pavicich over the left shoulder, giving Denver the 3-1 lead just before the midway point of the middle period.
“I think it’s important for us to express ourselves offensively with our speed and puck possession and make them defend us,” said Head Coach David Carle on the offensive upside of the game.
Denver continued to dominate play and had large amounts of offensive zone possession time until 9:43 when ASU brought the deficit back to one. An ASU net-front scramble shot slowly crept past the goal line to beat Davis bringing the deficit to 3-2, Denver.
Three minutes later, at 12:44, ASU tied the game at 3-3 off of a loose puck in the crease that Lukas Sillinger finished on making Mullett Arena explode into a frenzy.
The 3rd period brought more electricity and pace from both squads. At 6:36, Denver took the lead back with a junior forward Aidan Thompson breakaway goal, who slipped it past the five hole of Pavicich.
“We were pretty dialed in, rush defense, making plays, being at the net, defending our own net well, and I thought we deserved a better outcome based on how we played,” said senior forward Carter King.
Within the final minute of the period, ASU pulled their goalie and made a big push to tie the game up. A multitude of failed clearing attempts from Denver led to more dangerous chances, and at 19:11, ASU tied the game for the third time of the night. A seam pass from Artem Shlaine to Bennett Schimek beat a sliding Davis and sent the game to overtime. ASU started on the powerplay with a Denver penalty call in the final minute of the 3rd period that carried over to OT but were able to kill it off and get to a 3-3 overtime.
In the final minute of overtime at 4:16, Thompson skated down the left dot on a two-on-one and rifled a shot bar down over the left shoulder of Pavicich making the final score 5-4 and snapping the two-game losing streak vs. the Sun Devils.
“Zeev [Buium] dropped it to me with speed; it was a two-on-one with [Jack] Devine, and he was open in the start, but the defenseman covered him well, so I shot it high glove, and it went in,” Thompson said on his game-winning goal.
Saturday’s contest marked a big milestone for graduate student forward Connor Caponi, breaking a school record with 169 career games in a Denver uniform.
“It’s an honor obviously. A lot of good players have come through here, and it’s an honor to play as many games here at this program,” Caponi said.
“Caponi means a lot to this program, he gives his all every night every week, and I’m proud of him; it’s not easy to break any records at Denver,” Carle said about Caponi’s achievement.
The 1st period was deja vu from Friday, as ASU got the scoring started at 2:13, a point shot from Joel Kjellberg that was initially saved, but a rebound was put onto the tape of Kyle Smolen, who put it past Davis to give ASU the 1-0 lead early.
Denver’s ability to answer quickly was a huge positive in Saturday’s contest. ASU took a hooking penalty at 2:55, and at 3:51, DU scored their first power-play goal of the weekend. A crisp seam pass from senior forward Jack Devine went to the far post for a Harris backdoor tap-in tying the game at 1-1 early.
Like most of the weekend, the majority of the period was a back-and-forth fight for positioning and ice with momentum swings for both teams in the first frame.
Early in the middle period, at 3:06, ASU scored a breakaway goal from Sillinger, who slid the puck five-hole on Davis.
Harris continued his weekend dominance and at 6:35, a rebound from King gave Harris a sneaky goal, putting a loose rebound shot through the legs of ASU netminder Gibson Homer to retie the game at 2-2.
At 11:05 and 11:07, Denver and ASU both took penalties putting the game 4-on-4 for two minutes of play. 28 seconds later, at 11:35, Harris walked off the right dot and skated to the middle of the ice, and he put away a shot over the right shoulder of Homer. This gave Harris his first career hat trick.
“Sam was moving his feet, winning races, hard on the inside, and doing all the things he’s good at. He was excelling tonight and doing it to his level,” said Carle on Sam Harris’s hat trick performance.
The 3rd period was a hard, tense period for the Crimson and Gold. At 7:50, ASU’s leading goal scorer Ryan Kirwan sniped Davis’ bardown blocker side and tied the game at 3-3.
Denver’s strong efforts succeeded at 10:07 when Thompson beat a sprawling Gibson with a backhand shot to regain the DU lead.
Nearly two minutes later at 11:58, sophomore forward Kieran Cebrian received a pass from junior defenseman Kent Anderson for a quick shot over the blocker of Gibson to extend the Denver lead to 5-3.
ASU continued the strong bounce-back efforts, and at 12:2, Sillinger scored his second goal of the game off a quick one-timer on the left dot that beat Davis through the arm and cut the deficit.
A little over a minute later, at 13:44, a net-front battle led to a loose puck that was tapped in by Schimek, and it trickled past the goal line. At first, the puck was saved by a Denver defenseman but upon further review, the puck crossed the goal line, and it was tied back up at 5-5.
For the second straight night and the third time in two seasons at Mullet Arena, the game went to overtime. The start of overtime was back and forth with good chances going at both ends.
At 1:26, a great individual effort by Schimek dangled two Denver defenders, and he found himself alone with Davis and slipped the puck five-hole to beat Denver, 6-5, and send the Mullet Arena crowd into an all-out madness.
“I think we’re disappointed in the outcome tonight, but big picture, coming down here and even getting three points was a big deal, and we need every point we can get right now, and it’s important that we turn the page,” Carle said.
The Crimson and Gold faced the Sun Devils for the final time this season and came away with an overall 1-3 record. The Crimson and Gold will look to have continued success at home against North Dakota on Feb. 14 and 15.
