ASU men’s hockey ( 7-15-5) had a decent start to it first game against Boston University (12-11-2), but that was not enough for the Sun Devils to avoid being shutout by the Terriers 8-0 on Friday.
“I thought we did really have a good start to the game,” redshirt junior left wing Dylan Hollman said. “Obviously, that power play goal kind of took the wind out of our sails and then they kind of took off from there ... We’re going to try to take some positives especially that first half of the first period.”
The first half of the first period was reminiscent of a low-scoring, defensive battle because the Sun Devils were controlling the pace of the game.
However, the Sun Devils lost their momentum after freshman right wing Johnny Walker took a five-minute major penalty.
“We’re a team that doesn’t score a lot of goals right now in this stage of our program and he’s our leading goal scorer,” ASU head coach Greg Powers said. “So, it was a double whammy for us with him getting a five-minute major ... it’s been a while since he hadn’t had a point in a game.”
The Terriers did capitalize on their power play with a goal from junior right wing Bobo Carpenter with assists from defensemen senior Brandon Hickey and sophomore Dante Fabbro.
“First ten minutes, our goalie gave us a chance and kept us in the game,” BU head coach David Quinn said. “I thought they set the pace and the temp early on and if they go up 1, 2-0, all of a sudden this game has a completely different look to it.”
The game normalized, but as the first period came to a close, Boston University gave itself a monumental lead.
Freshman left wing Hank Crone scored with assists from freshman defenseman Cam Crotty and freshman centerman Ty Amonte after catching ASU sophomore goalie Joey Daccord out of position.
Then, BU freshman right wing Brady Tkachuk scored less than a minute later assisted by junior centerman Jordan Greenway and Crotty.
This was not the end of the onslaught as the Terriers got a third goal from freshman centerman Shane Bowers with an assist from freshman left wing Logan Cockerill with only 44 seconds left in the first period.
“We struggled in net tonight,” Powers said. “I don’t think that’s any secret. Dax has been great for us all year — he’s been really good and he’ll bounce back.”
With a 4-0 lead, Boston University had a strong start to the second period. ASU could not reset and less than seven minutes in, Carpenter scored his second of the night with an assist from senior defenseman John MacLeod.
“I think it was kind of one of those games where it just seemed like every time they had the puck and created a chance, it was going in one way or another,” Hollman said.
Daccord was beaten again single-handedly by senior centerman Chase Phelps for BU’s sixth goal of the night with 7:19 to go in the second period.
Freshman left wing Dominic Garcia was issued a four-minute double minor penalty and a 10-minute game misconduct, similar to what Walker was given in the first period.
The Terriers scored on this chance as well with a goal by Tkachuk with assists from Fabbro and Carpenter.
“Dom’s penalty. Again, when you have him taking penalties like that and he’s out for 14 minutes …he’s a huge killer for us,” Powers said. “You give them a four minute and a five minute — that’s nine minutes on the power play. You’re not going to win a game and they’re going to score and they did. So, it was disappointing.”
Sun Devil freshman Mike DePhillips went in for Daccord in net, as usual back-up goalie, junior Ryland Pashovitz, was ill.
“I knew Dax just didn’t have it tonight … I probably would have pulled him after the third (goal) if we had Pash ... but we didn’t have him,” Powers said. “That was my hesitation to throw Mikey in against BU down six, seven goals. You don’t want to do that to a kid. That is literally throwing him into the fire and he handled it great. He made some nice saves.”
BU got one more past ASU before then end of the game as sophomore left wing Gabriel Chabot got his team’s eighth and final goal with an assist from Carpenter.
With Chabot, BU had 13 players get themselves on the scoresheet for this game.
“It was a bad mix of things that happened, but it is what it is. We’ll bounce back.” Powers said.
The Sun Devils will host their last home game of the season on Saturday at Oceanside Arena at 7:05 p.m. MST.
Reach the reporter at pburnell@asu.edu or follow @paige_burnell on Twitter.
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