Defense in a shootout? Yes!

After scoring the tying goal with less than two minutes to go in regulation, the Grand Canyon University D1 Men's Hockey team went all the way to the last shot of a shootout to secure a thrill-a-minute 3-2 win over Arizona State University Saturday night at AZ Ice Arcadia. The victory clinched the Lopes' second straight sweep home sweep of their archrivals after breezing to a 6-2 win over the Sun Devils Friday night. The wins propelled the Lopes to an 11-10 overall record – the first time GCU has been above the .500 mark since mid-October.

Friday: GCU 6, ASU 2

Goals weren't hard to come by for either squad – especially since each team recorded 30 or more shots on goal for the evening. The complexion of the game, though, was broken into two parts, since neither team gave much ground during the first 30 minutes of play before the Lopes broke it open. Lopes' junior forward Griffin Duininck broke a 2-2 tie midway through the 2^nd on assists from Michael Lewis and Kolby Donovan, and that seemed to energize the Lopes from there. Luke Busher's goal with six minutes left in the period gave GCU some breathing room, and the Lopes' defense then stiffened, allowing just six ASU shots the rest of the way. The 18 Lopes' shots in the final frame wore down the Sun Devils' defense, and both Lewis and Preston Larson took advantage with Lopes' goals in the final 3:14 to put it away. The Lopes had six different goal scorers and won handily despite committing 10 penalties. Busher had a goal and two assists, Lewis and Jacob Cummings chipped in a goal and an assist apiece, while Donovan and Braden Husby each contributed a pair of assists.

Saturday: GCU 3, ASU 2 (F/OT/SO)

Saturday's game featured a dramatically faster pace-even when the teams went to the extra session-but that gave the defense better chances to adjust, and the score reflected that. In fact, it would've been a scoreless game heading to the 3^rd period had the Lopes not been called for a holding penalty on a Sun Devils' breakaway midway through the second period – allowing ASU's Brendan Studioso to score on a penalty shot.

The Lopes neutralized the one-goal deficit quickly in the third when Hunter Schmitz set up Duininck with 17 minutes left. The 1-1 tie lasted just four minutes, though, when ASU's Tyler Kiley Ram powered one past GCU goalie Riley Morgan. While it was the last scoring of the night for the Devils, ASU nearly made it stand up until both Busher and Schmitz set up Lopes' scoring leader Cummings, who flipped the puck over the shoulder of ASU netminder Blake Bjella with just 1:43 left in the regulation to tie it at 2-2 and send the teams to overtime. Five overtime minutes of 3-on-3 yielded just a fruitless shot on goal for each team and sent the game to only the Lopes' second sudden-death shootout of the season. Shooting first in the alternating three-shot period, the Lopes never trailed as Schmitz and Mason Kruse found the net in GCU's first two shots, then left it up to Morgan, who flinched in net on ASU's first attempt but stonewalled their last two shots to ice the win. The Concordia-Wisconsin transfer stopped 20 of the 22 ASU shots that came his way (not including the two saves in the shootout), and rang up a total of 48 saves for the weekend.    

The Lopes' current homestand gets even busier this weekend with three games in three nights: against the University of Colorado this Thursday, January 26 at 8PM, then against Colorado State University Friday night at 7PM and Saturday at 8:15PM. All three games will be held at AZ Ice Arcadia.