DURHAM, N.H. – The Sun Devil men's hockey team picked up their first road win of the season in dramatic fashion on Saturday night against the University of New Hampshire, rallying from down two goals in the final 17 minutes to win 5-4 in overtime.
After freshman defenseman Jakob Stridsberg tied the game up with 1:30 left in regulation, fellow rookie blue-liner Brinson Pasichnuk made an impressive play, swatting the puck out of midair for the game winner.
"It's a huge win – to get any win period is big for our program right now," said head coach Greg Powers. "Let alone on the road against a historic program like UNH. It's a great job by the guys, they fought through it and never gave up. There was never any panic on the bench and never any doubt. We felt like we really could win this game from start to finish, and you could feel it."
From the start, the Sun Devils (2-8-0) controlled much of the game and put the Wildcats (4-5-1) in a hole early. Redshirt junior David Norris flipped the puck into the zone ahead of freshman Tyler Busch, who took it on his stick and saucered one back to Norris for the easy tap in and a 1-0 lead.
New Hampshire battled back, tying it up just over a minute later as Tyler Kelleher got a breakaway opportunity and capitalized, squeaking one by senior netminder Robert Levin.
The second would remain scoreless for most of the period before UNH's Brendan Van Riemsdyk tucked one under Levin with just over four minutes left for the first Wildcat lead.
Like UNH, the Devils would answer right back, as Brinson snapped one through traffic past Wildcat goaltender Adam Clark. The game would enter the final 20 minutes in a 2-2 tie – a place the Devils were just over a month ago against Notre Dame.
This time it would start off the same, but end up completely different.
Within the first three minutes of the third period, New Hampshire would tally a power-play goal and one at even strength to take a 4-2 lead.
"I felt like we played the perfect road game the entire way," said Powers. "They popped up a couple there at the start of the third – one on the power play and one on a scramble in front. We could feel that if we could cut it to one we would be fine."
Just over three minutes later, sophomore Jordan Masters, who was making his first appearance of the season, did just that. Sophomore forward Anthony Croston fired a shot off the pads of Clark, which kicked right to Masters for the goal.
As the minutes winded down, fans began to file out of Whittemore Center expecting a 4-3 Wildcat victory. Stridsberg had other plans.
With 1:30 remaining, the Sweden native fired off a blast from the point, which again found its way through traffic and top shelf past Clark to tie the game at four.
As the game went to overtime – the Devils first of the season – UNH came out firing with several scoring chances. A Wildcat icing brought the faceoff back into the zone, forcing UNH head coach Dick Umile to call a timeout as his team was short-winded. Meanwhile, assistant coach Alex Hicks drew up the play.
Off the draw, graduate senior Robbie Baillargeon kicked it out for redshirt junior Wade Murphy, who sent it out to sophomore defenseman Nicholas Gushue. He would send it down to captain Dylan Hollman in the corner, who dished it back to Baillargeon in the right circle for a shot. His shot ricocheted off the pads of Clark and up in the air, where Brinson was waiting on the far side to swat it into the net.
Levin, who joined ASU as a club team and led them to the 2014 ACHA National Championship, would earn the first win of his NCAA career.
The Devils will turn right around for one game against No. 3 Boston College on Sunday at 3 p.m. ET/1 p.m. AZ.
"We just need to reset," said Powers in regards to the quick turnaround. "It's a great win and we have a short turnaround with an early game at Boston College, who is obviously an incredible program and playing some incredible hockey right now. We have our work cut out for us, but hopefully the guys use that energy that they just gave themselves in a huge win. You never know."
After freshman defenseman Jakob Stridsberg tied the game up with 1:30 left in regulation, fellow rookie blue-liner Brinson Pasichnuk made an impressive play, swatting the puck out of midair for the game winner.
"It's a huge win – to get any win period is big for our program right now," said head coach Greg Powers. "Let alone on the road against a historic program like UNH. It's a great job by the guys, they fought through it and never gave up. There was never any panic on the bench and never any doubt. We felt like we really could win this game from start to finish, and you could feel it."
From the start, the Sun Devils (2-8-0) controlled much of the game and put the Wildcats (4-5-1) in a hole early. Redshirt junior David Norris flipped the puck into the zone ahead of freshman Tyler Busch, who took it on his stick and saucered one back to Norris for the easy tap in and a 1-0 lead.
New Hampshire battled back, tying it up just over a minute later as Tyler Kelleher got a breakaway opportunity and capitalized, squeaking one by senior netminder Robert Levin.
The second would remain scoreless for most of the period before UNH's Brendan Van Riemsdyk tucked one under Levin with just over four minutes left for the first Wildcat lead.
Like UNH, the Devils would answer right back, as Brinson snapped one through traffic past Wildcat goaltender Adam Clark. The game would enter the final 20 minutes in a 2-2 tie – a place the Devils were just over a month ago against Notre Dame.
This time it would start off the same, but end up completely different.
Within the first three minutes of the third period, New Hampshire would tally a power-play goal and one at even strength to take a 4-2 lead.
"I felt like we played the perfect road game the entire way," said Powers. "They popped up a couple there at the start of the third – one on the power play and one on a scramble in front. We could feel that if we could cut it to one we would be fine."
Just over three minutes later, sophomore Jordan Masters, who was making his first appearance of the season, did just that. Sophomore forward Anthony Croston fired a shot off the pads of Clark, which kicked right to Masters for the goal.
As the minutes winded down, fans began to file out of Whittemore Center expecting a 4-3 Wildcat victory. Stridsberg had other plans.
With 1:30 remaining, the Sweden native fired off a blast from the point, which again found its way through traffic and top shelf past Clark to tie the game at four.
As the game went to overtime – the Devils first of the season – UNH came out firing with several scoring chances. A Wildcat icing brought the faceoff back into the zone, forcing UNH head coach Dick Umile to call a timeout as his team was short-winded. Meanwhile, assistant coach Alex Hicks drew up the play.
Off the draw, graduate senior Robbie Baillargeon kicked it out for redshirt junior Wade Murphy, who sent it out to sophomore defenseman Nicholas Gushue. He would send it down to captain Dylan Hollman in the corner, who dished it back to Baillargeon in the right circle for a shot. His shot ricocheted off the pads of Clark and up in the air, where Brinson was waiting on the far side to swat it into the net.
Levin, who joined ASU as a club team and led them to the 2014 ACHA National Championship, would earn the first win of his NCAA career.
The Devils will turn right around for one game against No. 3 Boston College on Sunday at 3 p.m. ET/1 p.m. AZ.
"We just need to reset," said Powers in regards to the quick turnaround. "It's a great win and we have a short turnaround with an early game at Boston College, who is obviously an incredible program and playing some incredible hockey right now. We have our work cut out for us, but hopefully the guys use that energy that they just gave themselves in a huge win. You never know."