The No. 9 ASU men's hockey team was swept in their final series of the 2019-20 regular season against Wisconsin over the weekend, losing 7-6 and 6-2.
Friday
ASU got out to a hot start with a goal from sophomore defenseman Josh Maniscalco 29 seconds into the game.
Wisconsin forward Roman Ahcan scored twice in less than a minute towards the end of the first period to put the Badgers up 2-1.
However, ASU junior forward Johnny Walker scored on the power-play with seven seconds left in the opening period to send both teams into the intermission tied 2-2.
Wisconsin scored twice more in the first half of the second period on goals from freshman forwards Ryder Donovan and Alex Turcotte, the Los Angeles Kings' fifth-overall selection in the 2019 NHL Draft.
Sun Devil sophomore forward Jordan Sandhu scored just over a minute after Turcotte's goal to bring ASU within one.
Walker added his second goal of the night for his 20th goal of the season — his second time reaching the mark in as many seasons — to tie the game going into the third period.
ASU junior defenseman Gvido Jansons scored nearly six minutes into the final period of play to retake the lead.
Wisconsin answered back with two additional goals of their own from Turcotte and junior forward Ty Pelton-Byce to push its lead to 6-5.
Senior defenseman Brinson Pasichnuk answered with a power-play goal over 12 minutes into the third to tie the score at six and keep ASU in the game.
Ahcan scored his third goal of the evening with 1:49 left to play to steal the lead and down the Sun Devils 7-6.
Saturday
After scoring the opening goal the previous evening, ASU suffered two goals at the hands of Wisconsin freshman forwards Owen Lindmark and Cole Caufield within the first six minutes of the game.
Ahcan scored his fourth goal of the series over two minutes into the second period, prompting ASU to pull sophomore goaltender Evan DeBrouwer and replace him with graduate transfer Max Prawdzik.
DeBrouwer made nine saves on 12 shots before being pulled.
ASU freshman defenseman Jacob Semik and senior forward Tyler Busch were both ejected at separate times in the second period for receiving game misconducts.
Wisconsin senior forward and Carolina Hurricanes prospect Max Zimmer padded the score with a power-play goal at 6:47 into the second period to stretch its lead to 4-0.
Wisconsin junior forward Tarek Baker scored his team's fifth goal of the game over three minutes after Zimmer's score to increase the lead to 5-0.
Senior forward Steenn Pasichnuk scored his first goal of the season inthe final regular season game of his NCAA career with less than four minutes left in the second period.
Zimmer scored his second goal of the night just over four minutes into the third period to push the lead to 6-1.
ASU freshman defenseman Jack Judson scored a power-play goal from the slot a few minutes after Zimmer's goal to make the score 6-2.
Junior forward Willie Knierim joined Semik and Busch with an early exit from the game after receiving a game misconduct for contact to the head at 12:32 in the third period.
ASU finished the game with 42 penalty minutes on 10 penalties.
Following Saturday night's loss, ASU (22-11-3) will now await the end of the NCAA regular season and hope that they are able to secure an at-large bid to the 2020 NCAA tournament in March.
Reach the reporter at aklatsky@asu.edu and follow @averyklatsky on Twitter.
Like The State Press on Facebook and follow @statepress on Twitter.
