ASU Hockey: Sun Devils shut out Bentley

Sophomore goaltender Evan DeBrouwer stood tall, and No. 11 Arizona State (20-9-3) did what they needed to do to shut out Bentley (13-14-3) 3-0 on Saturday night on the back end of a back-to-back.

Offensively, ASU grabbed the lead nearly eight minutes into the opening frame when junior forward Fil Buncis punched one home to give the Sun Devils an early advantage.

The two other goals of the evening came off the sticks of two seniors, as forward Brett Gruber sniped a puck off the post and in to make it 2-0 in the second period.

Then to put the nail in the coffin in the third period, defenseman Brinson Pasichnuk added an empty net goal to give him the 99th point of his career.

Buncis and sophomore forward Austin Lemieux both had two points a piece and ASU added a goal in each period to put the Falcons away. On the other end of the ice, DeBrouwer also made a variety of timely saves off Bentley scoring chances to give his team a boost and earn his third shutout.

With the victory, the Sun Devils have now won 10 of their last 12 games coming down the homestretch.

They are in complete control of their postseason fate so long as they take care of business with four to play.

ASU can tie its win total from last year during senior weekend and the final two home games of the year next weekend against Alaska Anchorage - a team that is currently No. 56 in the PairWise rankings and has four wins this season.

With an important task at hand, the Devils will need to close out the regular season strong to get where they want to go.

Although the wins in Massachusetts might not have been the best performances of the year, head coach Greg Powers and his team were still able to get the job done.

They will now head back to Tempe with a chance to make more history next weekend by surpassing their win total from last season.