ASU's Brooke Kimmel races towards the puck as Maryville's Mady Johnsen chases after her in ASU's 5-2 loss. (Hana Kaufman/ Inferno Intel)
ASU women’s hockey fans filled the bleachers and standing room areas of Mountain America Community Iceplex Thursday night in Tempe. But three-foot-high cardboard cutouts of Maryville University players’ faces dominated the glass behind ASU junior netminder Karsyn Hellman.
Maryville parents traveled from across the US and Canada to support the team on a four-game, five-day trip to Arizona. The 22 player portraits covered the entire width of the rink. It may have been the Sun Devils home opener, but it was the Saints’ night. Following a scoreless first period, Maryville (2-1) scored four goals in five minutes in the second period, which led them to a 5-2 victory over Arizona State (0-1).
“I honestly think we played 55 minutes of strong hockey,” ASU Head Coach Lindsey Ellis said. “I think there were five minutes where we collapsed pretty quickly and that’s when all the goals happened.”
Tied 0-0 after the first intermission, the Sun Devils earned their second power play of the game at 17:54 of the second period. With a man-advantage ASU looked to break the scoreless tie.
Maryville senior forward Colleen O’Leary blocked ASU senior captain Elle McKenna’s shot from the slot. O’Leary quickly took the puck across the ice on a breakaway, deked Hellman, and scored a short-handed goal at 16:58 to give the Saints a 1-0 lead.
“I shot the puck at her pads,” McKenna said. “It’s something I shouldn’t have done. She beat me to the puck and was able to get back a little bit faster than me. That’s something that obviously can’t happen when we have more people out there than them, but that’s just kind of a mistake that we have to learn from.”
The goal was O’Leary’s third of the season, which leads the team.
“I knew I had to get in front of the shot when I blocked it,” O’Leary said. “I just saw the ice in front of me, went down, and just stuck to what I knew and tried my best move on her.”
Maryville seized the momentum with an aggressive forecheck and senior forward Sydney Poisson scored two minutes later at 14:55 to give the Saints a 2-0. Two minutes later, Maryville scored, again. Sophomore forward Elle Rutherford found the back of the net at 12:57 to give Maryville a 3-0 lead.
In a little over four minutes, a close, competitive contest turned into a route. Coach Ellis used a timeout to calm her team down.
“We just needed to get our stuff together,” Mckenna said. “We needed to take a second to regroup and kind of get back on track.”
Maryville Head Coach Tom Lange used the break to ensure his team didn’t get comfortable. Maryville won the ensuing faceoff and Saints sophomore forward Ana Kahlhammer scored 14 seconds after the timeout and were ahead 4-0.
“We can’t give them life,” Lange said. “If you give a team an inch, they take a mile. We have to have that killer instinct every game, and we had that for those 12 minutes in the second.”
ASU regrouped and controlled the pace of play for the remainder of the period. Elle McKenna worked tirelessly in the crease and whacked at the loose rebound. She scored the first Sun Devils goal of the season and cut the deficit to 4-1.
The disastrous five-minute sequence aside, the Sun Devils outshot the Saints 23-8 in the second period. The Sun Devils finished the game with a 43-20 shot advantage but struggled to capitalize.
“I think our speed was an asset for us tonight,” coach Ellis said. “But we need to get better quality shots. Shots from the point aren’t going to work against this team.”
Despite the lack of quality scoring chances, Saints junior goalie Kaitlyn Cadrain did her part and made 41 saves.
“They had seven to 10 great scoring opportunities,” coach Lange said. “She (Cadrain) came up big for us, but we need to make life easier for her tomorrow night and moving forward.”
Both teams traded third period goals. Maryville sophomore forward Sophie Brennan gave the Saints a 5-2 lead with 5:54 remaining. ASU senior winger Hayley Martin scored with 1:22 left.
Maryville was the more poised team after having already played two games this season. ASU had seven players making their Sun Devils debut.
“I think there was a little bit of gameday jitters,” senior defenseman Sami Lutsch said. “A lot of new girls were a little bit nervous and that’s fine. It’s a good opportunity to really dig deep and show ourselves who the Sun Devils are.”
ASU won’t have to wait long. The Sun Devils play Maryville Friday at 6:55 p.m. at Mountain America Community Iceplex.