No. 12 Arizona State tied its third game of the season and first ever Mullett Arena game against Dartmouth on Friday night in Tempe. (Sedona Levy / Inferno Intel)
Sudden death overtime is one of the most exciting aspects of college hockey. For No. 12 Arizona State (11-3-3) it’s become a routine occurrence. On Friday, the Sun Devils needed an extra period for the eighth time this season and earned a 4-4 draw with Dartmouth (2-3-5).
ASU came back from a two-goal deficit in the second period and a one-goal deficit in the final frame to force overtime.
The Sun Devils trailed 3-1 late into the second period. Freshman forward Cole Gordon and graduate student forward and captain Tyler Gratton both scored in the final three minutes of the frame to tie the game 3-3.
In the third period, Dartmouth sophomore forward Steven Townley gave Dartmouth a 4-3 lead with 15:27 remaining in the game. ASU senior forward Benji Eckerle tallied the equalizer with 11:14 remaining in the game.
“Benji pulled us out of it and made some big plays,” ASU coach Greg Powers said, “and just brought the energy we needed to get through and show the resiliency to tie it back up and get out of here.”
Eckerle and Gratton both had 2-point nights to lead the Sun Devils offensively with a goal and an assist apiece.
On the other side, senior forward Joey Musa and freshman forward Nikita Nikora also had a goal and an assist each to lead the Big Green.
ASU took an early lead on the power play just over six minutes into the game. Kopperud beat Dartmouth sophomore goalie Cooper Black on his backhand to record his team-leading sixth power-play goal of the year.
After putting ASU on the man advantage, Musa atoned for his penalty and tied the game on his next shift a couple minutes later. Nikora and sophomore forward Luke Haymes scored with 7:47 and 5:12 remaining to put Dartmouth ahead by two goals.
“We had a really good start,” Powers said. “For seven, eight minutes we were really good. It felt like we were gonna play downhill and really get going and our D just kept coughing the puck up.”
The Big Green dominated the final 10 minutes of the period and prevented ASU from getting a single shot on goal in that span. Dartmouth finished with an 8-5 shot advantage.
“We took some penalties and gave them some momentum,” Powers said, “and really if you look at all their goals, it was just blatant, stupid turnovers by our D… it just became contagious.”
Early in the second period, Junior defenseman John Fusco appeared to give Dartmouth a 4-1 lead but the goal was reversed because of incidental contact on ASU junior netminder TJ Semptimphelter.
Gordon found the back of an empty net to cut the lead to 3-2 with just over three minutes left. With a defender on his shoulder, Eckerle held onto the puck to lure Dartmouth sophomore goalie Cooper Black out of his crease, before finding Gordon alone in front of the empty goal.
“[Eckerle] won a battle on the wall and took it hard to the net and made a great play,” Powers said, “and Gordo pounded it home. So that got us going tonight.”
On the next shift, Nikora’s tripping minor gave ASU its third power play of the period. On the man advantage, Gratton put home senior forward Lukas Sillinger’s pass from across the crease to tie the game 3-3 with 1:45 left.
“We needed to just get pucks to the net, you know, and catch them out of position,” Powers said, “and I think [Sillinger] made a really high IQ play to get the puck to the blue paint and [Gratton] put it home.”
The Sun Devils played their best hockey in the second period. It was the only frame where ASU outshot Dartmouth (12-7).
In the third period, Townley beat Semptimphelter glove-side to give Dartmouth a 4-3 lead with 15:27 remaining.
Less than two minutes later, Musa gave Dartmouth a 5-3 lead, but the goal was reversed after replay review. Powers challenged that there was goaltender interference on the play, and the officials erased a Big Green score for the second time.
A few shifts later, Eckerle took the puck across the ice from his own end along the left wing boards and fired it through Black’s five-hole from the faceoff circle to tie the game 4-4 with 11:14 left.
“[Eckerle] was great,” Powers said. “He put us on his back.”
ASU was fortunate to force overtime after getting outshot by Dartmouth 8-3 in the third period.
The Sun Devils’s overtime experience showed. ASU controlled play throughout the 3-on-3 period. They outshot the Big Green 5-1 in the five-minute extra session to give the Sun Devils a 25-24 advantage on the night.
Senior defenseman Tim Lovell nearly ended the game twice after skating through multiple Dartmouth defensemen on separate plays.
In the shootout, Sillinger scored the lone goal in the third round to win it for the Sun Devils. The game still counts as a tie, but the shootout victory was a small consolation prize on Powers’ birthday.
Special teams play was the difference between the two teams. The Sun Devils were 2-for-5 on the power play and 5-for-5 on the penalty kill. ASU entered the game with the seventh-best power-play percentage in the country (26.5%).
After tying Joey Daccord’s program shutout record (8) in ASU’s last game against Colorado College, Semptimphelter had an uncharacteristic performance in his ninth consecutive start on Friday. His .833 save percentage in the game was below his season average (.923).
“I know our guys are in there and they feel like we lost,” Powers said, “because they don’t like not doing anything but winning at Mullet and neither do I. So we need to be better tomorrow. We will be better tomorrow. They played well tonight. They played hard, and we’re gonna have to be better to get a win.”
With the tie, ASU’s record in overtime games is 4-1-3 on the season.
The Sun Devils host Dartmouth in game two of the series on Saturday at 5 p.m. MST. It will be ASU’s final home game of 2023 before the team hits the road for the rest of December.