After the 7-4 loss Friday night to No.4 North Dakota, the Arizona State Sun Devils (5-7-1) found themselves in sixth place in the NCHC.

The Sun Devils looked to bounce back and salvage a three-point weekend against the top team in their conference the North Dakota Fighting Hawks.

After seven minutes, senior Bennett Schimek fed sophomore defensemen Brasen Boser for a one timer that found the back of net.

North Dakota’s captain Bennett Zmolek took a two-minute minor 19 seconds later for a high stick, giving the Devils their first power play of the night.

The Sun Devil’s capitalized with some beautiful passing on the power play leading to a wrist shot from Sam Alfano to make it 2-0 devils.

A North Dakota power play had to get scrappy—off a pad save from freshman goalie Samuel Urban, freshman defensemen Keaton Verhoeff found the loose puck and tucked in the rebound to make it 2-1 Devils.

The North Dakota got another power play with 2:14 left in the period, but didn’t produce, keeping it 2-1 heading into the first intermission.

In the second period Devils left winger Ty Nash picked up a two-minute minor for tripping and giving North Dakota their third power play.

The Sun Devils penalty kill held strong to keep their lead. 

After the kill, North Dakota sophomore center Cade Littler picked up a two-minute minor for a crosscheck, giving the Devils a power play.

As the penalty was expiring the Devil’s Kyle Smolen found his teammate Logan Morrell on the faceoff dot for a wrist shot into the back of the net, to make it 3-1 Arizona State. 

After the Morrell goal, North Dakota was given two more power play opportunities. Neither resulted in a goal keeping it 3-1.

With 22-seconds left in the second period senior Dylan James skating behind the net, delivered a pass net front to a wide-open Andrew Strathmann for an easy goal, making it 3-2 Devils heading into the second intermission.

North Dakota started the third period with a bang—42-seconds in freshman Will Zellers fired a wrister past the goalie Urban’s stick to tie the game at 3.

Halfway through the third period North Dakota managed to create a two-on-one rush that found James wide open in front of the net to take the lead 4-3.

As the clock ran down to four minutes, ASU defenseman Justin Kipkie committed a costly hooking penalty giving North Dakota their sixth power play.

Halfway through senior Ben Strinden found some space on the ice and fired a wrister past Urban to give the Fighting Hawks a two-goal lead at 2:54.

Following the goal, the Sun Devils bench was called for an unsportsmanlike, giving North Dakota a seventh power play.

North Dakota didn’t score on the power play, but they were able to drain the rest of the clock and complete the weekend sweep.

The third star was defensemen Keaton Verhoeff who had a goal and two assists.

The second star was right winger Ben Strinden who had the game sealing goal and an assist.

The first star was Dylan James who grabbed the go-ahead goal and two assists.

Postgame, ASU head coach Greg Powers addressed the number of penalties his team committed.

“Our guys got gassed we took too many penalties, we were killing with Schim he took one, we were killing with Smoly, you know Mo took one, so it just seemed like you know everyone who took a penalty was one of our four forwards in front where the kill was. So it gassed us, it really gassed us there in the second and they’re just so deep and so good,” Powers said.

ASU’s loss moves them to 5-8-1 in conference play and keeps them in sixth place.

The ASU Sun Devils look for a bounce back series next week on the road against the Colorado College Tigers.