No. 19 Arizona’s (2-1-0) winless streak against the Sun Devils was extended to 25 games after an 11-3 loss on Friday night.
“Two things, one we obviously didn’t play well and I can’t figure out if Arizona State is really that good or we really played that bad,” head coach Sean Hogan said. “Arizona State is definitely, what we talked about before, on paper, one of the best teams that I have ever seen at this level, they definitely proved that tonight.”
Junior forward Ansel Ivens-Anderson, senior forward Brian Slugocki and sophomore forward Mike Ferreira scored the Wildcat goals. Ivens-Anderson thought the UA played well the first five minutes of the first couple periods though.
“It certainly wasn’t how we envisioned starting the weekend,” Ivens-Anderson said. “It’s a tough loss, it’s always tough losing to a rival, but even though the game kind of got a little out of hand there towards the end, I thought we had our moments where we were playing really well.”
Arizona hasn’t won against ASU since 2009.
“They’re a very, very good team,” Hogan said. “We have to play better though, we started showing a lot of bad habits that we are trying to correct.”
ASU scored 11 goals on 45 shots, while the Wildcats had just 25 shots on goal.
“We didn’t do much right, we have a long way to go,” Hogan said. “We talked about it the day I was hired, it’s a process, we’re going through that process.”
The Wildcats trailed 2-0 during the first intermission and 6-1 after the second period and then the wheels fell off.
Sophomore Bob Schultz made his third start of his career in goal and made 34 saves.
UA was limited to just a few practices before the game, but Hogan was quick to praise the Sun Devils.
“They have a ton of talent and it is going to be hard for anybody to match up with them,” Hogan said.
Ivens-Anderson, who transferred from NCAA Division I New Hampshire, said the Sun Devils would be competitive in the top flight of college hockey.
“I think they could be very competitive with some Division I teams for sure,” Ivens-Anderson said. “You have a Division I transfer from Canisius [Junior forward Brian McGinty], a couple D-III guys, they’re junior players, they can definitely compete.”
The rivals wrap up the series Saturday night at 7 p.m. at Tempe’s Oceanside Arena. The game can be heard on ASU’s radio station, blazeradioonline.com and watched on fast hockey.com for a few dollars per game.