(St. Cloud, MN) Sun Devil Hockey (5-2-0, 1-0-0 NCHC) opened conference play with a 3-2 victory over St. Cloud State (2-4-0, 0-1-0 NCHC) on Friday night at the Herb Brooks National Hockey Center, extending its winning streak to four games.
Senior captain Kyle Smolen reached the 30-career-goal and 70-career-point milestones with a goal and an assist, while sophomore forward Jack Beck scored the game-winning goal in the third period to secure the win for Arizona State.
Smolen’s 30th career goal also surpassed 70 career points, becoming just the fourth Sun Devil to reach the 30-goal milestone, joining Johnny Walker (70), Matthew Kopperud (64) and Brinson Pasichnuk (39), and the 10th player in program history to reach 70 points.
Sophomore goaltender Samuel Urban turned aside 28 of 30 shots to earn his fourth victory of the season. The Sun Devils capitalized on two of their three power-play opportunities while holding the Huskies scoreless on all three chances with the man advantage to improve to 23-for-24 (95.8%) on the penalty kill to start the season.
Junior forward Ben Muthersbaugh (1G, 1A) and freshman defenseman Jonas Woo (2A) each recorded multi-point performances. Woo leads all freshman defensemen nationally with eight points (1G, 7A) through seven games, while ranking third among all NCAA Division I defensemen in both points and assists.
The Sun Devils will look to complete the series sweep and secure their fifth consecutive victory when the two teams meet for the series finale on Saturday at 4:00 p.m. MST / 6:00 p.m. CDT at the Herb Brooks National Hockey Center.
Period-by-Period
FIRST PERIOD
ASU struck first at the 6:14 mark of the opening period when Woo connected with Smolen on a picture-perfect pass that the senior captain buried on the power play for his fourth goal of the season.
St. Cloud State responded with two unanswered goals, evening the score at 8:26 before taking a 2-1 lead at the 11:37 mark.
The Sun Devils answered with their second power-play goal of the period when Muthersbaugh buried a one-timer at 18:48. Beck and Woo collected assists on the play to even the score at two heading into the first intermission.
SECOND PERIOD
Neither team found the back of the net in the middle frame despite the Sun Devils outshooting the Huskies 14-8.
THIRD PERIOD
Beck broke the deadlock just 3:45 into the final frame, redirecting a shot from the point by junior defenseman Rylan Brown into the back of the net for his third goal of the season, giving the Sun Devils a 3-2 advantage.
ASU held off St. Cloud State for the remainder of regulation, including a late penalty kill and an extra-attacker opportunity for the Huskies. Urban stopped all nine shots he faced in the third period to preserve the one-goal victory.
Press Release courtesy of Sun Devil Athletics – Danny Sullivan
