ASU starts fast, holds off Icecats

The third-ranked Icecats fell to the ninth-ranked Ice Devils for the first time on ASU's home ice.

"We showed a lot of character in the second two periods," Icecat coach Leo Golembiewski said. "We outshot them and outplayed them for two periods, easily, but our goaltending was terrible."

Freshman goaltender Beau LeMire gave "a terribly inconsistent performance in the nets," according to Golembiewski. "We're really wondering about our goalie situation. Whether we should start using Tesi more at least as a motivational factor to get the team going again."

The Ice Devils came out scoring early, putting three goals on the scoreboard in the first period. Junior Ben Ruston started the Icecats' scoring, connecting at 4:17 in the second period off of passes from co-captain Peter Scott and sophomore Andy Knick.

However, ASU quickly resumed its domination on offense, notching in two more goals before the end of the second period.

The remaining Icecat scoring drives were lead by Ruston and Brian Consolino, with each having two goals. Three of their goals came in rapid succession from 7:44 to 13:49 in the third period.

Knick and sophomore Bob Majka added goals as well.

The Ice Devils were able to score three more times to put the game away, though, with the final goal tallied at 19:06.

"We showed a lot character when we were down 3-0, then 5-1," Golembiewski said. "We have the character we need to win a national title."