ASU Hockey: Devils fall 5-0 to Minnesota State, suffer weekend sweep

TEMPE - Saturday’s matchup between Arizona State (11-17-0) and Minnesota State (14-9-1) could have been a benchmark win for ASU. Students were back from break and packed the north bleachers. The Sun Devils carried the revenge card following Friday’s loss. Their most recent big wins came against Minnesota and Boston College, both of which came after a loss in game one of the series.

Those conclusions were an afterthought for fans walking into Packard Structure following a 5-0 Minnesota State victory over ASU.

For a period, ASU out-shot and out-skated the Mavericks. The problem was that it took the Sun Devils a minute (a minute and 10 seconds to be exact) to get to that point. All it took was Minnesota State goal 70 seconds into the game.

Although ASU won the shots battle 16-10, the Mavericks took a 1-0 lead into the locker room.

“I thought we played really well (in the first period),” coach Greg powers said. “ We came out hard, a lot of energy. I thought we carried the play for the most part.”

For the second night in a row, it still felt like the Sun Devils were a bad play-or-two away from losing their competitive edge. As if on cue, it took just 25 seconds for the Mavericks to extend their lead to 2-0.

ASU subsequently unravelled. MSU won the shots-on-goal battle 13-4, and added an additional two insurance goals for a 4-0 lead.

“Our guys stopped playing,” Powers said. “They stopped playing for an entire period. Why? I have no idea, but to a man, they just, in that second period (Minnesota State) manhandled us. So our guys have to wash it, and obviously not allowed to happen again.”

About half the paid attendance was still in the building when the Mavericks scored their final goal in the third period to nail-in a 5-0 victory.

Next week will showcase another Mullett Arena doubleheader when ASU takes on RIT (15-6-1) on Friday and Saturday.