D-I team: 2nd semester review

WCRHL March 16th, 2009 at 2:19AM March 28th, 2009 6:39PM

Regular Season

Continuing the trend of the season, things never really came together for the 2009 Sun Devils as injuries and absent players hampered their success in the 2nd semester more than it had 1st semester.

Goaltender Clay Taylor, forward Nick Miller, and defenseman Brian Ganz were all selected to the Division I All-Star team but that was the only highlight of the All-Star Weekend tournament for ASU. They were without 4 players, including leading scorers Long Duong and Jeremy VanBuskirk, and the team went 0-3, losing to Cal Poly SLO and twice to UNLV.

2 weeks later the Sun Devils wrapped up their inaugural regular season at Corona with a 6 game weekend. This tournament saw the return of VanBuskirk but due to a wrist injury suffered in December, Duong was still not ready to play. ASU started off strong with a win over UC Irvine in which the Sun Devils trailed 5-1 only to outscore UCI 8-1 to finish the game up with a 9-6 victory. In the next 2 games, ASU held 2nd period leads over both Long Beach State and San Diego State but were unable to keep up with those teams deeper benches and ended up losing both games.

The Sun Devils wrapped up a spot in regionals by winning their next 2 games over Saddleback College and UC Irvine. In the final game of the weekend they were unable to match San Diego State's intensity, as they were playing for their last chance to make regionals, and lost that game to finish the season with a 9-10-1 record.

After playing only 6 games all season, VanBuskirk finished with 20 points, good enough for 4th on the team. Ganz would lead the team in scoring with 25 goals, 14 assists, and 39 points. Dodt was behind him with 36 points, including the 4th most assists in the WCRHL with 24.

True freshman goaltender Clay Taylor was a beast in net for the often overmatched and outnumbered Sun Devils team. Facing a barrage of shots every game, all year long, Taylor faced the 2nd most shots of any goalie in the nation and led the nation in saves with 509. He also racked up the 4th most wins and the 2nd highest save percentage in the WCRHL.

Regional Championships

At regionals, once again missing VanBuskirk and Duong, the Sun Devils faced more problems. After losing 2 tough games in pool play, they matched up against regular season champions Long Beach State. Late in the 1st period, Alex Dodt broke his collarbone while attempting to block a shot, leaving the Sun Devils without their only true defenseman and only 6 skaters. Those 6 skaters were able to do it though, beating Long Beach 5-4 on a shorthanded goal by Cody Clark, guaranteeing ASU a spot at nationals.

In the regional semifinal, after building up a 3-0 lead on top seeded UC Santa Barbara, those 6 skaters didn't have any gas left in the tank and ended up losing 5-4 to UCSB, who would go on to win the tournament.