When asked what needed to change about ASU's power play after Wednesday's practice, head coach Greg Powers jokingly said, "everything."
A moment after, he returned to seriousness and chalked the struggles up to his team not having much practice on the power play together because 14 freshmen joined a host of others from the old ACHA squad to form the new NCAA team.
Entering Friday's matchup against Southern New Hampshire— the first game for the team at Oceanside Ice Arena this season—the Sun Devils (2-4) were only 1 for 19 on power plays.
But in their 9-2 win over the Penmen, they converted on three of four power play opportunities.
"(I liked) the movement and the simplicity," Powers said. "We really worked on just simplifying what they're trying to do all week, just putting pucks on net and getting guys in the net. It's really not rocket science, but that's all we did differently."
After Southern New Hampshire (0-1) scored first, ASU scored four unanswered goals—three in the last five minutes of the first period—to take a commanding 4-1 lead. Two of those were power play goals, which seemed to kickstart an attack that only managed one goal in three games on last week's Connecticut road trip.
On that trip, ASU's goaltenders faced early barrages. But on Friday, the Sun Devils were the ones creating opportunities and putting pucks on net.
"When you get shots and you're putting pucks on net, it breaks down their defensive zone coverage and they start running around, and then you can start making plays," Powers said. "Really good effort by the power play. Young team that has never played on the power play together and they're starting to get it."
Freshman defenseman Nicholas Gushue, who scored the first two goals of his collegiate career in the opening period of the win, accounted for ASU's first power play goal. Gushue then assisted on the second, taking the puck behind the net and passing to teammate Jack Rowe, who slotted it.
Gushue said the team was moving and spreading the puck well during its power plays, something had not happened much prior to Friday night.
"Getting the puck up high and moving it, and getting shots through as well really helped," he said.
ASU also put 54 shots on net, compared to just 17 for Southern New Hampshire. It was a drastic difference for a team that entered the game allowing almost 18 more shots on its net than it took.
Powers said the team aimed to break the game up into three periods and try to win each one. On Friday, it did more than that, winning each one with a dominant power play, a hefty amount of shots on goal and a quick attack, something it had not done to this point.
"It's tough to win every period by three, four, five goals," he said. "I'm sure (Southern New Hampshire) was really trying to clamp down in the third and win that period to get momentum going into tomorrow, but we found a way to win the period and no complaints."
ASU will look to win consecutive games for the first time in its new NCAA history when the puck drops at 7:30 p.m. for the second game of the homestand against Southern New Hampshire on Saturday.
Reach the reporter at Justin.Toscano@asu.edu or follow @justintoscano3 on Twitter
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