No. 17 ASU hockey fought tooth and nail with Michigan Tech, splitting its home series over the weekend, with both games providing thrilling matchups.
Saturday:
The Sun Devils dominated the first two periods of its 4-3 win over the Huskies on Saturday night, but survived a scare in the third period to win.
ASU opened scoring less than five minutes into the game as junior forward William Knierim netted his fifth goal of the season at the time.
Sophomore forward PJ Marrocco scored a little over 10 minutes later, with sophomore forward Jordan Sandhu adding another goal to take a 3-0 lead.
The final period nearly ended in disaster, as ASU allowed three goals. Michigan Tech cut into the deficit after sophomore forward Brian Halonen scored in the fourth minute of the period.
Junior forward Filips Buncis scored a few seconds later to put ASU up 4-1, but Michigan Tech rattled off two more goals in the period to make the final minutes of the contest tense.
The Sun Devils survived the push, including a save from sophomore goalie Evan DeBrouwer, two blocked shots and a missed shot.
Sunday:
A thrilling third period ended in a 3-2 loss for ASU on Sunday afternoon, resulting in a series split for the team and just its second home loss of the season.
The first two periods left the teams locked 1-1. Michigan Tech scored halfway through the third, but Knierim tipped in a shot from senior defenseman Brinson Pasichnuk to tie up the game with under four minutes left.
Michigan Tech freshman forward Logan Pietila scored less than two minutes later, which proved to be the go-ahead goal.
ASU never led throughout the contest.
ASU is now 11-8-3 on the season. They play an away series against Brown next starting on Jan. 11 at 5 p.m. MST.
Reach the reporter at cvanligt@asu.edu and follow @Connor_VL on Twitter.
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