While the Arizona State Sun Devils (4-3) couldn’t truly avenge last season’s 2-1 loss to the Quinnipiac Bobcats, which abruptly ended the program’s first-ever trip to the NCAA tournament, tonight was certainly a start.
Ranked number nine in the country, the Quinnipiac Bobcats (4-2) made the roughly 2,500-mile trek to Tempe from Hamden, Connecticut, only to fall 5-3 at the hands of a Sun Devil squad determined to get them back.
“The biggest thing I liked about tonight was when they cut it to 3-2 on a shorthanded goal- that we just kind of mismanaged the puck in the offensive zone- a lot of teams would start to pucker up a little bit,” ASU coach Greg Powers said. “We didn’t. We shoved it right back down their throat.”
Although the Sun Devils played with a lead, or tied, for almost the whole 60 minutes, the Bobcats were right on their tails through much of the night. They outshot ASU 38-32, won the faceoff battle 41-33 and never seemed out of the game, even at the very end when they trailed by two goals.
“Quinnipiac was tremendous on faceoffs, and we were not,” Powers stated. “It felt like we lost all the draws at the wrong times- we weren’t winning draws on the power play, so our centers have to compete.
“They just can’t lose draws clean like they were tonight. It’s one thing to tie them up and wait for help with your wingers, but it’s something we have to get better at.”
Thankfully for the Sun Devils, their sophomore netminder Evan DeBrouwer brought his ‘A’ game, saving 35 of the 38 total shots he faced.
“Evan’s legit,” Powers stated. “I’ve been telling you guys he’s really good. We love (former goalie) Joey Daccord, and we miss Joey Daccord, but Evan- we knew what we had.”
While ASU’s offense certainly showed out in the victory, there easily would have been a double-digit number of total goals without the superb effort of DeBrouwer and his defensive teammates.
“(Our defenders) were amazing tonight,” DeBrouwer said. “In the end, it was just mayhem, and a lot of pucks I couldn’t see, and probably would’ve gone in if it weren’t for the guys laying their bodies on the line. It was great buy-in tonight, it’s been like that all year though to be honest with you.”
This was evident in ASU’s 19 total shots blocked, compared to Quinnipiac’s five. The ASU goalie also lauded his teammates’ effort in killing a five-minute power play, which resulted from a questionable game misconduct call on ASU sophomore Demetrios Koumontzis for checking from behind with a minute to play in the first period.
“That five-minute power play they had, I hardly had (to face) any shots,” DeBrouwer said. “I think maybe two or three, and they weren’t grade ‘A.’”
The penalty on Koumontzis closed out a very eventful opening frame, as the Bobcats were the first to light the lamp only 3:18 into the contest. The goal was scored by freshman Skyler Brind’Amour- the son of Carolina Hurricanes coach and 20-year NHL veteran Rod.
ASU had a hasty response, however, which is a theme that would be repeated later in the night. Almost exactly two minutes after QU started the scoring, junior defenseman Jacob Wilson evened it right back up with his first goal of the season, his first of what would be a team-high four shots.
“Just his energy and how he jumps into the play and executes how we want to play…(Wilson’s) one of our leaders,” Powers said. “He’s such a good player, he’s such a good leader, he’s such a good kid, we’re just happy to have him.”
About 10 minutes later, a holding penalty on junior QU defenseman Joe O’Connor would prove costly, as ASU freshman winger Logan Jenuwine finished a great cross-ice pass in front of the goal from fellow freshman and defenseman Jacob Semik, getting the Sun Devils their first lead at 2-1 with the power-play score.
But the penalty on Koumontzis came exactly 1:55 later, and despite the questionable call, ASU’s ability to kill the full five minutes (four of which spilled into the second period) was the team’s first true showing of its will to win this contest.
“Where Koumo (Koumontzis) went wrong (on the penalty) was at the top of the circle, his hand was on his back,” Powers explained. “You can’t do that now, you can’t have hands up, and sticks up, it’s going to get called.
“It wouldn’t have shocked me if it was a (two-minute minor) without a (five-minute major), maybe it was a little excessive, but it gave us energy and it is what it is…he’ll be back tomorrow.”
Despite the impressive kill on ASU’s part, the Bobcats nearly scored just minutes later, although it was called no-goal on the ice because of junior Bobcats forward Odeen Tufto appeared to go sliding feet-first and kick the puck into the net.
The call on the ice would stand, and QU had something of an emotional meltdown for the remainder of the second, as ASU got under their skin and took full advantage.
In the 12-and-a-half minutes that remained in the frame, ASU would get three more power-plays off of Bobcats penalties, which doesn’t even include the roughing called on both teams when time expired.
Ironically, the one goal in the second came at full strength, with sophomore Sun Devil defenseman Josh Maniscalco scoring a one-timer slap-shot that was nicely set up by senior defenseman Brinson Pasichnuk 10:38 into the period.
ASU would take a 3-1 lead into the third, and the penalties would continue, now on both sides. Only 1:56 after his roughing penalty that carried over from the end of the second expired, junior forward Johnny Walker picked up another call, this time for hooking.
The Bobcats would get called for holding just under a minute-and-a-half later, which should’ve been a break for the Sun Devils as the remaining 36 seconds of Walker’s penalty would be a four-on-four, which would be followed by a power play of 1:24 for ASU.
Nevertheless, QU would score a shorthanded goal on a break from sophomore forward Ethan de Jong, who finished a nice through pass from Brind’Amour to cut ASU’s lead to 3-2.
With 13 minutes still to play in regulation, the goal came at a perfect time for the Bobcats to string together a rally. But the Sun Devils would not let that happen; not in the friendly confines of Oceanside Ice Arena.
“The pushback that we had- our guys weren’t going to let us lose this game,” Powers commented.
As alluded to earlier, ASU had another quick response to a QU goal. Freshman defenseman Jack Judson hit a beautiful shot from between the circles that found its way through traffic and gave ASU back its two-goal lead, not even two full minutes after the Bobcats had cut the deficit to one.
Fast forward not even another full two minutes and Jenuwine added another score off another nice pass- this one off the stick of Wilson. Jenuwine’s two goals on the evening doubled his season total coming into the game, and the true freshman’s goal put ASU in control 5-2 with just over nine minutes to play.
“It’s awesome to get the opportunity as a freshman to come in and do what I can to help the team win,” Jenuwine said. “The end is easy, the work that got (me in the position to score) is the hard part.”
Similar to the Bobcats in the prior 30 minutes of the match, ASU started to lose some self-control in those final minutes. A cross-checking penalty on ASU senior forward and captain Tyler Busch with 4:48 left was all QU needed to pull its goalie.
While playing six-on-four, redshirt freshman forward Guus van Nes capitalized for the Bobcats with his first goal of the season. This brought QU within two, and there was still 3:26 remaining in regulation.
However, the Sun Devils would hold the fort despite playing much of that time down two men, thanks to another penalty on junior forward Willie Knierim. As DeBrouwer mentioned earlier, it was a stout effort on ASU’s position players at the end that frustrated QU, hardly allowing them to get shots in that span and keeping a two-goal winning margin.
“Guys have been bought in to helping me on the (penalty-kill), especially, blocking shots,” DeBrouwer said, “so yeah we just need to do that again tomorrow and I think we’ll be alright.”
“Blocking shots at the end, everything, it was just a great team win,” Powers said.
The Sun Devils will face off against the No. 9 Bobcats again Saturday night, with puck drop scheduled for 7:05 p.m.
