Five days after getting its first win of the season, ASU hockey dropped the first tilt of a two-game road series at No. 17 Northeastern University, 5-2, on Friday.
The Sun Devils are now 1-4-0 on the season.
Joey Daccord, a freshman goaltender who leads ASU goalies in ice time during the 2016-17 campaign, was pulled from the game in the first period when he gave up three goals on eight shots.
Sophomore Ryland Pashovitz relieved Daccord in net, allowing two goals and making 21 saves.
The Huskies (2-1-2) outscored ASU 4-0 in the first period.
The Sun Devils turned things around after the first intermission, outscoring NU 2-1 during the final two frames. ASU also took fewer penalties in the game (8) than Northeastern (9) and walloped the Huskies in faceoffs, winning 44-22 in that category.
"They went down 4-0 and could have mailed it in but they didn't," ASU head coach Greg Powers said of his players in a press release. "We outscored one of the better teams in the country in the final two periods with a few chances that didn't find the back of the net."
In the second period, graduate forward Robbie Baillargeon scored two goals for the Sun Devils, both on the power play. However, the Huskies’ Zach Aston-Reese scored a short-handed goal (the senior's fourth goal of the season) in between Baillargeon’s tallies. At the end of two, the score was 5-2, where it would remain.
Final from Game 1 in Boston.
— Sun Devil Hockey (@SunDevilHockey) October 22, 2016
Baillargeon earns 3rd star with 2G. pic.twitter.com/1Ikyf59UVe
All five of Northeastern's goals were scored by different skaters. Huskies sophomore goaltender Ryan Ruck stopped 23 of 25 shots, earning his third win of the year.
ASU and Northeastern will return to the ice on Saturday at 4 p.m. MST, as the Sun Devils seek a series split and their second victory of the season.
"We won the last 40 minutes and that's what I just told them," Powers said. "However, every guy in there should look in the mirror and feel they could have played better. It's a team loss, period."
Reach the reporter at matthew.layman@asu.edu or follow @Mattjlayman on Twitter.
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