Arizona State Sweeps Minnesota Duluth; Advances to NCHC Semifinals

After the Arizona State Sun Devils took game one against the Minnesota Duluth Bulldogs, you would have thought they lost after head coach Greg Powers spoke at his press conference.

“I told the guys after the game like, hey, it’s all about getting wins here and advancing, and we did that,” Powers said. “Tomorrow we got to be better, like our veteran guys have to manage pucks and just play simple (in the) D zone and kill plays better than we did tonight.”

The team narrowly won 4-3 in a back-and-forth game with tons of excitement in the first playoff game in the valley in 4,679 days (excluding the Tucson Roadrunners).

Game two showed much of the same excitement as game one with a thrilling 6-5 win in overtime and thus sending the Sun Devils to Minneapolis, Minnesota for the NCHC semifinals.

The semifinals will be held on March 21 and March 22, with North Dakota and Western Michigan already punching their ticket alongside the Maroon & Gold. Denver University and Colorado College play game three today after splitting the first two.

This series had about everything you could imagine for ASU, with plenty of ups along with the downs. That said, we start this series breakdown with the dominance of senior winger Ryan Kirwan.

Kirwan’s Game-Winner Caps Off Superb Series

Kirwan entered the transfer portal after notching 13 goals and 26 points last season with the Penn State Nittany Lions. After some time looking, he settled on Arizona State, where he’s now flourishing.

“I had Tyler Gratton to kind of lean on. He was captain here last year, so super closer with him,” Kirwan said. “Just seeing how special it could be when I was in the portal and how special it is now, I’m just super proud of everyone.”

Kirwan scored the game-winning goal in overtime in game two against the Bulldogs, which was also his 25th of the season, tied for second-best in the country.

Kirwan also potted two assists in the game-two win, earning him the first star of the game. The 23-year-old has been ASU’s go-to for scoring this entire season and has a memory he’ll remember forever.

Though his season might be over at Mullett Arena, he’ll look to help ASU advance to the NCHC finals in Minnesota.

Mullett Arena Crowd Electrifying All Weekend

During the two seasons the Arizona Coyotes shared Mullett Arena, after each win, people around the team tabbed it “Mullett Magic,” a phrase that slowly but surely caught fire. It’s safe to say that it’s real, and it showed up this weekend against the Bulldogs in a big way.

“The fans were incredible,” Powers said. “Credit them with the biggest assist; they just energized our guys and carried us across the finish line. They’ve been doing that all season, so happy we could (do) that one in front of them.”