November 17, 2014
Salt Lake City, UT
The University of Utah Skatin’ Utes welcomed in the defending PAC 8 champs in Arizona State this past weekend a skated away with a win and a loss against what is becoming Utah’s biggest rival in the PAC 8 Conference.
On Friday night the Utes looked for redemption against the team that beat them in five overtimes in last year’s PAC 8 Championship game and started out strong with a goal three and a half minutes in by Beau Bertagnolli to give the Utes an early 1-0 lead. That lead evaporated seven minutes later when ASU tied the game with 9:42 left and the game would go into the intermission tied at 1-1.
The Sun Devils would be the only team to find the net in the second period, scoring with 6:43 left to give ASU a 2-1 heading into the third period.
In the third, Utah would get an early power play goal by Dean Wilson to tie it up at 2-2 with 16:34 left. With less than ten minutes left in the game Arizona State would score again to take the lead with 8:09 to go in the game. As the game winded down, the Sun Devils took a five minute major penalty late that shifted the entire momentum of the game.
With 5:52 left the Utes would capitalize on the penalty with a goal by Chase McDonald to tie it back up at 3-3. Exactly two minutes later the Utes would score again , this time by Ben Seastrand to give Utah a 4-3 lead with 3:53 remaining.
In the final minute the Sun Devils once again found an equalizer with just 44 seconds left to tie it back up at 4-4. Just as the game looked like it was going to overtime, Josh Dangel found a loose puck in a mad scramble in front of the ASU net with 32.7 left to give Utah the final lead of the night at 5-4 and the win for the Skatin’ Utes.
The Utes outshot the Sun Devils 44-33 in the game as the Utes had as many shots in the third period alone (22) than they did in the first two periods together (14 and 8). Chris Komma picked up his 11th win of the season with 29 saves in the game.
On Saturday the Utes looked for the weekend sweep and sole possession of first place in the PAC 8 conference against the Sun Devils, but ASU came out ready to play, scoring twice in the first ten minutes to take a 2-0 lead early in the game.
The Utes could never get back in the game, which included two five minute major penalties to Utah, both for interference, as ASU added another power play goal in the second and earned a split against the Utes in Salt Lake City by a score of 3-0.
The Sun Devils outshot the Utes 38-32 in the game as now the Sun Devils lead the all-time series two games to one. Devan Betts picked up his 2nd loss of the season with five saves before being pulled in the first period.
