No. 12 Denver twice overcame deficits and held off a determined Arizona State team, 4-3, to sweep the non-conference series Saturday night at Magness Arena.

Sophomore defenseman Mike Benning‘s rebound goal with 12:33 to play stood as the winner. Junior Bobby Brink had tied the score for the final time with 20 seconds to go in the second period – another crucial goal at an important time. And freshman Massimo Rizzo scored the first two goals for DU (2-0). Magnus Chrona made 14 saves.

Here are three observations about the victory over the Sun Devils (1-3).

Playing with fire

Leave the matches out often enough and you run the risk of getting burned. And so it was for DU for the second night in a row,. Arizona State struck for three power-play goals for the second consecutive night. Two of Saturday’s strikes came in the first period.

“Obviously a big goal was to stay out of the box,” sophomore forward Carter Savoie said. “We didn’t do a good job of that in the first. I think we cleaned it up as the game went on.”

Five of the Sun Devils’ power-play opportunities came in the first period, and they used precise cross-ice passing to find open shooting lanes. Only two came after that.

The Pioneers, meanwhile, went 0 for 7 with the man advantage. The Sun Devils were aggressive on their penalty kill, perhaps emboldened by DU’s inefficiency. Just nine of Denver’s 41 shots on goal came on those seven power plays.

“I thought the power play generated some chances,” coach David Carle said. “I liked our kill more tonight than last night. We made them work for it tonight.”

DU’s penalty kill rose to the occasion when it needed to, killing off a questionable tripping call on Rizzo with 4:56 to go. Not only did the Sun Devils not get a shot but captain Cole Guttman stole the puck at the DU line, surged down the ice on a breakaway and drew a penalty 1:06 later.

“We were up 12-3 shots in third, but we put our foot on the gas and played our best,” Carle said.

Not every game will feature 15 penalties (we hope), but you can bet teams will try to goad the Pioneers into taking them. Brink summarized the mission going forward.

“We need to shore up our start to the game and not take so many bad penalties,” he said.

Evening it up

Five on five was another story, however. Denver outscored the guests 4-0 and outshot them 32-8 at even strength.

And freshmen played a big role in that, particularly Rizzo, who scored DU’s first two goals to go with the one he had Friday night.

Jack Devine was another, and the wing played a big role in Rizzo’s first goal. His pass out of the DU zone hit Rizzo near the ASU line. Rizzo’s touch pass found a speeding McKade Webster going down the left wing. Devine went to the net to draw an ASU defender back and Rizzo stepped into the opening in the slot and beat New Jersey Devils draft pick Cole Brady (37 saves) to the top right corner.

Devine also drew a secondary assist on Rizzo’s second strike, which evened the score 5:19 into the second period. Rizzo knocked the puck down in the Sun Devils zone and passed to another freshman, Sean Behrens, in the left circle then high tailed it to the net. Behrens’ return pass hit Rizzo in stride and he again beat Brady.

Devine also added the secondary assist on Benning’s winner, which came off a shot by Brett Stapley near the goal line to Brady’s right. Benning alertly jumped into an opening in the slot and, as he said, “picked my spot, and I guess I picked right.”

That gave Devine three helpers and four for the weekend.

“They’re really good hockey players,” Carle said. “We’ve been excited about this group since the fall signing period last year. … We always believed they’d be able to step in and be contributors.”

Brink took it a step further, attributing much of the Pioneers’ first sweep to his newer brethren.

“They’ve been great for us,” he said. “They’ve added an extra element to our team. I don’t think we win those two games without them.”

What about Bob?

Brink has played thus far as though he has found another gear.

A second-round pick of the  Philadelphia Flyers in 2019, the junior assistant captain generated double figures in shots for the second night, finished with seven on goal and scored for the second night in a row. He scored two goals all of last season after 11 as a freshman.

His goal offset ASU’s third PPG and restored momentum to the Pioneers heading into the second intermission.

“That was a big response,” Carle said.

And it came on a face-off play that was a thing of beauty.

“That was Cole Guttman’s idea,” Savoie said. “He was getting tied up quite a bit on that side. He said, ‘Why don’t you try to poke it?'”

From there Brink beat Brady between the pads.

“It was all Savoie on that play,” Brink said. “We planned it before. He managed to walk around that guy and gave me a backdoor pass.

The sweep was a positive first step for a team that struggled out of the gate a year ago.

“I don’t think we played our best game, we had more to offer,” Brink said. “But it’s hard to sweep a team in college hockey.”

Notes: Denver captain Cole Guttman played his 100th NCAA game on Friday night. Only grad/senior Ryan Barrow has played more for DU among active players (129). … The Pioneers made two lineup changes. Sophomore Reid Irwin was in on defense in place of junior assistant captain Justin Lee, and forward Owen Ozar subbed in for fellow freshman Carter King. … The game included three players who were teammates last season at the U.S. National Team Development Program – Denver forward Jack Devine and defenseman Sean Behrens and ASU defenseman Ty Murchison. … And players on each side actually were college teammates a year ago at Bowling Green – DU forward Cameron Wright and ASU defenseman Tim Theocharidis.

©First Line Editorial 2021