Even with a revolving door at the penalty box and the officials calling a tight game, the Ice Devils were able to claw their way to a 3-2 overtime victory over Robert Morris College-Illinois on Saturday. The win evened a two-game split against the Eagles following a 5-1 loss on Friday.
The two teams combined for 122 penalty minutes in two games.
"I thought they called a good game," ASU head coach Mike De Angelis said of the officiating. "We keep preaching the discipline part of it, but we got to work on our power play. The power play has got to be able to bury pucks for us to win hockey games."
In the first meeting of the two-game series on Friday, ASU sophomore forward Kelsey Johnston scored the first goal of the game and his seventh of the season, but the Eagles scored five unanswered, including four in the third period.
"We abandoned the system," De Angelis said of Friday's loss. "We had individuals trying to win the game by themselves and that's not going to happen."
The game featured an exchange of fisticuffs between ASU senior forward Adam Schoenfeld and Robert Morris sophomore forward Derek Albers resulting in both players getting ejected.
On Saturday night, ASU regrouped and controlled the puck in Robert Morris' zone through most of the game. While the Eagles scored first with a Dan Stastny goal, ASU eventually tied the game, and took a 2-1 lead late in the third period with a goal by Ryan Esner.
However, Robert Morris tied the game with 1:52 remaining, chipping in a loose puck and sending the game to overtime.
Just over two minutes into the extra frame, ASU sophomore forward Weston Pongracz came in on a line change and beat Robert Morris' goalie Aaron Merkle on a breakaway.
"It was hard work by my defense," said Pongracz, whose game-winning goal was his 10th of the season. "I had a few steps on the defenseman and instead of shooting, I just felt like going backhand upstairs on the deke. I've been missing every other breakaway."
Reach the reporter at jeffrey.Hoodzow@asu.edu.
