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Turnovers with a capital “T” told the story of tonight’s game between the Arizona State Sun Devils (2-7-2) and the Penn State Nittany Lions (6-7-0).
The Sun Devils started out okay but eventually the wheels fell off leading to a 7-0 defeat at the hands of Penn State.
“It’s just a really disappointing effort,” head coach Greg Powers said. “To play as soft as we played is completely unacceptable I feel sorry for our goalie, we completely hung him out to dry.”
After a scoreless first period in which net minder Joey Daccord stopped all 10 shots the Nittany Lions threw at him, the game hit a tipping point.
The Sun Devils took five penalties on the night including back-to-back in the second period where Penn State capitalized for the game’s first two goals.
Those first two goals, much like the five that would come later, were not allowed due to mistakes by goalie Joey Daccord, but by the people around him as his coach emphasized.
“He was great,” Powers said of his sophomore goal tender. “He held us in the game and then obviously those last five minutes just completely got away from us.”
The third period was certainly one to forget for the Sun Devils as they allowed five goals in total and four in the final eight minutes of the game to finalize the blowout loss.
Coach Powers put it simply as he said that his players were out-worked and out-hustled and simply didn’t deserve to win.
While they had their chances here and there, anytime the shot totals are as skewed as they were tonight (Penn State - 49 Arizona State - 15) it’s going to be very tough to escape with a win.
Coming off a bye week. Coach Powers may have been baffled by his team’s lackluster performance. The expectation for tomorrow will still be high, knowing that tonight wasn’t a normal game for the Sun Devils.
“At the end of the day, our guys just couldn’t execute.”
Game two of the series will take place tomorrow night at 7:05 pm MST from Gila River Arena as the Sun Devils look to avoid a sweep at the hands of the Nittany Lions.