ASU men's hockey started its four-game, weekend road trip on a high note on Saturday, as they came back to defeat New Hampshire, 5-4 in overtime.
On Sunday afternoon, the Sun Devils (2-9-0) went up against No. 3 Boston College. Unlike Saturday, bounces went against ASU and they fell just short, losing 3-1 to the Eagles (10-2-1).
ASU head coach Greg Powers opted to go with freshman Joey Daccord in goal, as Robert Lavin stopped 32 shots in their defeat on Saturday.
The Eagles came out flying on all cylinders and ended up striking first, as sophomore Colin White, a first round pick of the Ottawa Senators in the 2015 NHL draft, scored his 7th goal of the season. Senior forward Matthew Gaudreau got one of the assists on the goal. Matthew is the younger brother of Johnny Gaudreau, a forward for the NHL's Calgary Flames.
ASU played most of the first period on their heels, as Daccord made 15 big saves in the first period.
Daccord finished the night with 38 saves.
Just as the first period was winding down, Jordan Masters — who made his season debut vs. New Hampshire on Saturday — tallied home his second goal in two games. Nicholas Gushue and David Norris got the assists.
Masters had missed the first nine games of the season for undisclosed reasons.
Just as Daccord was on a save streak in the middle of the second period, the puck took a bounce off the boards as Daccord attempted to play it.
But the puck ended up in front of the net and Boston College freshman forward David Cotton put it in the empty net. That goal marked the second power play goal on the afternoon for the Eagles.
ASU finished 0-for-5 on the man advantage.
Cotton's goal would be the only goal scored in the period, as the Eagles went into the third period with the momentum.
The rest of the game was a continuous back-and-forth motion. The Eagles finally put the came out of reach at 17:07 of the third period, when senior forward Chris Calnan sealed the deal for the Eagles, giving them their tenth win of the season.
For Boston College, it was freshman Ryan Edquist who got the start in goal. He was challenged late in the third period and he finished the night with 23 saves.
"I think we took a big step forward tonight," Powers said. "There is no way they cannot look at themselves in the mirror and know that when we play the right way, we can play with anybody.
"It was really impressive how they came out in the third and controlled the play for the majority of the third period."
ASU was outshot in the game, 41 to 21, and got beat up in the face-off department, 41 to 23.
Powers said after the game that this was Daccord's best game of the season.
"He was remarkable tonight," Powers said. "The second goal was a bad bounce of the boards but he was good as he can be. He was awesome."
Fourteen players in the Eagles' lineup had two or more shots on goal on the evening.
"We played a really good road game," Powers said. "We didn't make too many mistakes, we got some big saves to hold us in it early, and we hung around the entire game. Just didn't quite get it done and bury some chances.
Final from Chestnut Hill. #ASUvsBC pic.twitter.com/p3r4bxcbrG
— Sun Devil Hockey (@SunDevilHockey) November 13, 2016
The Sun Devils will look to get back into the win column next weekend, as they travel to University Park, Pennsylvania to take on Penn State.
Reach the reporter wbdewitt@asu.edu or follow @westondewitt on Twitter
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