28 days. Plenty of time to slow down a high-powered offense… at least for a little while.

Despite flustering their archrivals from Tempe for the first two periods Saturday night at AZ Ice Arcadia in Phoenix, the Grand Canyon University D1 Men's Hockey team needed two goals within a 69-second span early in the 3^rd period to officially shake off the effects of the four-week semester break and finish off a 3-0 shutout of Arizona State University (6-11-1 overall, 2-5 WCHL). The win is GCU's third straight over ASU and extends the Lopes' winning streak overall to four games.

For a team that has made firing 50 shots on goal each game almost routine, coming out of the locker room for the third period with just 24 shots under its collective belts seemed strange. Neither team mustered much offensive rhythm in the first period – as evidenced by the 16 shots on goal combined. In fact, the three Lopes' goals on the night came in two brief stretches where the Lopes got the upper hand on the ASU defense. The first one came on a 3-on-2 break eight minutes into the 2^nd period, with Ricky Nelson cashing in assist passes from both Gavin Uckele and Owen Hanson to finally break the scoreless tie.

While the Lopes couldn't continue the momentum the rest of that period, their speed returned early in the 3^rd period and they pounced, with Lopes' freshman Evan Leden putting one between the pipes with 16:09 to go; then Nelson flipping his second goal past ASU netminder Nathaniel Glenn just 69 seconds later. The Sun Devils' frustration of only managing seven 3^rd-period shots then boiled over, resulting in 11 penalties and three disqualifications between the two squads in the game's final seven minutes.
After allowing a single goal in four games this season, Lopes' goalie Dmytro Kubrytskyi finally recorded his first shutout, stopping all 21 ASU shots on goal, which was the same total of shots the Lopes (13-4 overall, 11-2 WCHL) managed against Glenn in the 3^rd period alone (45 overall).

The Lopes now pack up and head east to Newark, Delaware, to face three top teams (University of Delaware, Stony Brook University (New York) and John Carroll University (Ohio) in the ACHA Showcase this coming weekend. They'll then kick off a six-game homestand beginning Friday, January 23rd at 9:05PM against the University of Utah at AZ Ice Arcadia. Game tickets are available on the GCU Club Sports website.