Special teams lead Arizona State to 8-1 win

U.S.A.F. ACADEMY, Colo. – Arizona State, ranked 20^th in the nation, scored three short-handed goals and two power-play goals for an 8-1 win over Air Force in the season opener for both teams, Friday, Oct. 4, at the Academy's Cadet Ice Arena.

Arizona State (1-0-0) opened the scoring on a short-handed goal by Bennett Schimek at 12:30. With 4:03 left in the first, Dylan Jackson collected a rebound in the slot and scored for a 2-0 lead.

Early in the second period, the Falcons again went on the power play, but Schimek scored short-handed again for a 3-0 lead at 5:26. Air Force got on the board at 8:16 as Clayton Cosentino scored from Nolan Cunningham. Cunningham made a long outlet pass to Cosentino. His first shot was blocked, but Cosentino scored on the backhand just inside the far post.

Freshman Ren Morque drew a penalty and the Falcons went on their fourth power play of the game. The Falcons had five shots on goal, several quality opportunities, but ASU goalie Gibson Homer was up to the task. Later in the period, the Falcons went on the power play again, but Benji Eckerle forced a turnover and set up Kyle Smolen for a short-handed goal at 15:20.

Arizona State opened the third period with two goals in the first three minutes. ASU freshman Cullen Porter scored on a 2-on-1 rush just 28 seconds into the third period. After the goal, Falcon goalie Guy Blessing was replaced by sophomore Carter Clafton. Air Force was called for its second penalty of the game early in the third and the Sun Devils capitalized. Smolen scored his second of the game, this one on the power play, as he redirected a shot by Noah Beck for a 6-1 lead with 17:21 remaining. ASU added two goals in the final 1:16 as Schimek completed the hat trick and Cole Gordon scored with 38 seconds left.

Air Force (0-1-0) outshot ASU, 28-24. The Falcons were 0-for-6 on the power play while ASU was 2-for-2. ASU goalie Gibson Homer stopped 27 of the 28 shots he faced. Blessing made nine saves in 40:28 minutes while Clafton made seven saves in the final 19:32.

"We made some nuclear mistakes tonight," head coach Frank Serratore said. "They were much better than us on special teams. We gave up some breakaways and we need to play better, but we need to get a couple saves too. Everything that could go wrong did go wrong for us. The bottom line is we have a lot of things to fix."

Air Force and Arizona State conclude the two-game non-league series on Saturday, Oct. 5, at the Cadet Ice Arena.

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Team Stats

Clayton Cosentino

Nolan Cunningham

Brendan Gibbons

Will Staring

Players Mentioned

Guy Blessing

Carter Clafton

Clayton Cosentino

Nolan Cunningham

Ren Morque

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