60 minutes before the puck dropped, the gates opened as fans stormed into Mullet Arena, nearly filling all 5,000 seats in mere minutes. The atmosphere was electric for the first playoff game at Mullet as the No. 2 seed Arizona State hosted the No. 7 seed Minnesota Duluth in Game 1 of the quarterfinal round for the NCHC tournament.
Both teams threw haymakers throughout the game, but ASU (20-13-2, 15-9-2 NCHC) never trailed and came out with a 4-3 win over the Bulldogs (13-19–3, 9-14-2) to take a 1-0 series lead. In their first year as a member of the NCHC conference, the Sun Devils are just one win away from making it to the semifinal round of the tournament.
“It was awesome; the fans were incredible,” head coach Greg Powers said. “They energized our guys and carried us across the finish line tonight. They’ve been doing that all season, and I’m happy we could get one in front of them. It wasn’t pretty, but the result was a good one.”
The scoreboard reflects a positive outcome, but Powers was unhappy with the play throughout the game. The Sun Devils looked very sluggish at times and struggled to exit their own zone, leading to chances to score for the Bulldogs, which they capitalized on numerous times. If ASU wants to have an off day on Sunday and complete the sweep tomorrow, the players will need to come out with more juice and animation than tonight.
“The forwards have to come back to the puck,” Powers noted. “I thought we did a really good job of it in the first 10 minutes, but we were staying still and stagnant and not creating space in neutral ice. Their defense came hard and pinched us, but we just have to play faster.”
After Arizona State took a 2-1 lead going into the first intermission, the Bulldogs came out of the locker room energized and stole all momentum from the Sun Devils. The game was tied 3-3 going into the third, and all the pressure was on ASU as the higher seed.
Just five minutes into the third, the Sun Devils took the lead after sophomore defenseman Anthony Dowd skated from the blue line right up to the net with no defense and buried a backhanded shot into the net. It may have been just his second goal of the season and his first since November 16th, but it turned out to be the game-winner that gave ASU a win away from St. Paul, Minnesota, for the semifinals.
“He’s created that opportunity a lot this year; they just haven’t gone in for him,” Powers explained. “That was a great shift for all five guys on the ice. They had a ton of chances, they were throwing pucks on net, and we had good spacing. It was really a good goal by all five of them, and Dowder finished it.”
Junior forward Charlie Schoen returned to the lineup for the first time in five games and made his presence felt, scoring one of the four goals as a part of the fourth line. With sloppy play up and down ASU’s bench all game long, Schoen, along with juniors Tucker Ness and Ryan Alexander, continued to play with a passion that the rest of the team needs to pick up on tomorrow night.
“He (Schoen) was awesome for us tonight,” Powers admitted. “He gave us speed, energy, and tenacity. He gave us exactly what I wanted him to give us, and he was probably our best player today. His line ended up being the best line for us, and the other three lines stunk. We’ve got to be better.”
“I’m proud of our team, but I challenged them after the game,” Powers acknowledged. “They have to be better than what we played tonight. We looked like a team that just got off a bye week. We found a way to grind out a win, and that’s great. But now we gotta end this thing tomorrow.”
The Sun Devils are a win away from advancing to the semifinals of the tournament, keeping their NCAA tournament dreams alive. Now sitting at No. 15 in the PairWise ranking, they’ll likely need to jump No. 14 Michigan with two auto-bid conference winners behind ASU. With Michigan losing in the first round of the Big 10 tournament, Arizona State’s fate sits in its own hands, but the play on the ice tonight didn’t exactly mirror that.
“Obviously, we’re thrilled to get the win,” Powers acknowledged. “We’re just not content with how we got the win. The result was great, but we have to be better than we were tonight, or else we’re playing here on Sunday. None of us want to play here on Sunday, and if we play more our style and are more assertive in a lot of areas, I like our chances.”
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