ALLENTOWN, Pa. -- The Cinderella story came to end on Saturday night. Arizona State fell just short to Quinnipiac, 2-1, in the first round of the 2019 NCAA Tournament.
It took 51 minutes and 42 seconds of play for the Sun Devils to score, but the first-ever tournament goal for the program from Brinson Pasichnuk ignited a spark that wasn’t there until that moment. It proved to be too little, too late and ASU couldn’t completely piece together a possible comeback for the ages.
“Tough loss,” ASU head coach Greg Powers said. “It’s never easy losing the final game of the season in a national tournament, but I have so much to be proud of when it comes to our players and our program and we will learn from this and certainly build from it.”
ASU flipped a switch when Pasichnuk scored. The Sun Devils were swarming and getting every opportunity to tie things up in the waning moments of regulation, including a primetime shot from sophomore Johnny Walker that rung off the iron.
But then an illegal check by freshman Jarrod Gourley with 3:44 left on the clock drastically impacted the direction of the outcome for ASU when it was seemingly coming to life. Gourley received a five-minute major and a game misconduct for checking from behind, and it forced the Sun Devils down a man while playing from behind.
“The major was important, obviously,” Powers said. “It took some momentum away, but I do not think they got a shot. We were all over them and we did all we could to tie that thing up, but we just couldn't buy one.”
However, it was evident that the team with the best start to the hockey game was going to take tight control. Quinnipiac did just that in the primetime event of the evening at PPL Center.
Just under four minutes into the action, there was a faceoff to the left of ASU goalie Joey Daccord. The puck got tied up off the draw until Quinnipiac sophomore Joe O’Connor whacked at it and the shot went in beneath Daccord.
“It happened to catch me by surprise,” Daccord said. “I was trying to find the puck. I couldn’t find the puck.”
That was the only damage done to the Sun Devils in the first period. But coming into the contest with Quinnipiac, it was paramount that ASU stayed out of the penalty box.
The Bobcats got their first power play of the night to begin the second period. They didn’t come away with a goal in those first two minutes, but it set the tone for the rest of the middle frame.
“They took it to us, and they took it to us really good,” Powers said. “Starting the penalty off on a two-minute kill on clean ice, it just gave them a lot of momentum and they carried it for most of the period..”
Seven minutes in, Quinnipiac struck again. Freshman William Fällström was given a juicy rebound just to the left side of Daccord off of a bad angle shot from Alex Whelan, and Fällström made no mistake.
Quinnipiac went on to outshoot ASU, 16-2, in the second period. The Bobcats also played very stingy on defense, especially in the neutral zone and blocking shots.
The Sun Devils struggled often offensively, especially in the first two periods. They couldn’t set up anything that really tested Mike Richter Award finalist Andrew Shortridge until the barrage of scoring chances from ASU in the final ten minutes of the game.
Daccord, one of this year’s other four Richter finalist, finished with 36 saves himself. The junior will have a decision to make over the offseason about whether or not he returns to ASU.
“There wasn’t a dry eye in that locker room tonight after that game,” Daccord said. “Every one of those players means so much to me. Regardless of what happens here in the future, I’m just so incredibly thankful to Arizona State and all of the wonderful teammates that I’ve met. I’m just so fortunate to be a part of this.
The loss doesn’t define the season for the Sun Devils. A team that went from 18 wins combined in its first two full division I seasons and turning it around with a 21-12-1 record and competing on the national stage.
“I just sum up the year as one huge family that came together really early on and knew we could do something special,” Pasichnuk said.
The experience of going to the NCAA Tournament is beneficial for the program moving forward. Now, the players that return next season will understand what it takes to make the postseason.
“To make a national tournament in our third full season is a special accomplishment that nobody outside of our locker room thought we could do,” Powers said. “We knew pretty early in the season we had a pretty good team that can do some special things.”
ASU wasn’t even supposed to be in the conversation for a postseason bid this season. But the historic, underdog run that’s been alive has the nation taking notice, and the players know what they’re capable of as well.
“Not the result we wanted at all,” Johnny Walker said. “We talked as a team, and I think that winning anything less than winning a national championship was a bust. It’s a tough one to swallow, especially coming so close. But we’re going to learn from it, and we’ll be back.”
