October 24, 2016
Salt Lake City, UT
The University of Utah Skatin’ Utes returned home last weekend to take on Arizona State and came away with two wins to extend their current win streak to four games.
On Friday night the Utes took on Arizona State’s ACHA Division II team for just the fourth time in team history, looking to even the all-time series at two games apiece. The Utes were able to control the first period, outshooting the Sun Devils 14-4 but a costly turnover by Utah led to the only goal of the first period and the Utes found themselves trailing after the first period 1-0.
A breakaway goal by Arizona State early in the second period caused more problems for Utah as they found themselves trailing 2-0 despite outshooting the Sun Devils by almost double. That trend changed halfway through the second period when rookie Patrick O’Bryan fired a shot past ASU goaltender Oliver Boerst for his first collegiate goal and cut ASU’s lead to 2-1. Just over a minute later, the Utes would tie the game as Julian Cronan scored off a pass from Nick Fornelius to make it 2-2 after two periods.
With the game in the balance in the third period, the Utes finally found their stride as Alex King scored and Josh Dangel added two more of his own to put the Utes up for good. The Utes were able to out shoot the Sun Devils 22-10 in the final period and skated away with the 5-2 win.
The Utes ended up outshooting the Sun Devils 49-25 in the contest as the Utes picked up their fifth win of the season. Jared Manzella made his first start in net for Utah this season and picked up his first win, stopping 23 of 25 shots he faced.
The Utes looked for the sweep on Saturday but just like Friday night, the Utes outshot the Sun Devils in the first period but gave up the period’s only goal. They outshot the Sun Devils 17-6 but trailed 1-0 after the first period.
Utah wouldn’t take long to answer the score in the second period, as Cronan and Jack Suel scored 57 seconds apart to give Utah the 2-1 lead just three minutes into the second period. The score would stay that way until the final seconds of the period, where ASU scored off a rebound in front of the net to tie the game at 2-2 with just ten seconds left in the period.
Like Friday night’s game, the Utes would turn to another rookie to be the difference in the game. This time it was defenseman Tristen Leberkinght who scored his first collegiate goal with 14:08 left to put the Utes up 3-2. He would score again just four minutes later on the power play and the Utes found themselves up 4-2 with ten minutes left in the game.
ASU would make it interesting just two minutes later as the Sun Devils scored a 5 on 3 power play goal to cut Utah’s lead to 4-3 with eight minutes to go. But the Utes would have the last laugh as Alex King scored with 1:12 left to put Utah up 5-3, which ended up being the final score.
Patrick Kasper made his college debut in goal for the Utes and picked up his first ever win, stopping 21 of 24 shots. The Utes outshot the Sun Devils 57-24 in the contest.
With the two wins, the Utes now sit at 6-4 on the season and remain undefeated against D2 opponents this season. Next up the Utes face their biggest test of the season, as they head back to North Dakota for their first ever meeting with the second-ranked Minot State Beavers.
