Homer Shutout Leads #19 Hockey to Second Consecutive Desert Hockey Classic Title

TEMPE – The No. 19 Arizona State ice hockey team (10-7-1, 5-3-3 NCHC) steamrolled the No. 16 Cornell Big Red (6-4-3, 3-3-2 ECAC) to defend its title as Desert Hockey Classic champions at Mullett Arena on Saturday night. The Sun Devils earned a 4-0 shutout victory at the hands of redshirt junior goaltender Gibson Homer. 

Ryan Kirwan won the Desert Hockey Classic's Most Valuable Player after collecting a five-point weekend capped off by four goals and an assist. 

Gibson Homer made a season high 34 saves in his first shutout against a ranked opponent. The shutout is the third of his NCAA career (Alaska Fairbanks, Northern Michigan, and #16 Cornell). The shutout also marked the first time that Cornell has been shutout this season, snapping a 49-game streak of recording at least one goal when Cornell lost to Harvard 1-0 in overtime during the 2022-23 season on March 17, 2023.

Rookie Sam Court, senior Ryan Kirwan, and graduate Lukas Sillinger each enjoyed a two-point night with one goal and one assist each. 

Alternate captain Lukas Sillinger captured his first goal of the season in the second period, which gave the Sun Devils a 3-0 lead. He also gathered his 90th career assist on a goal by Ty Jackson which gave ASU the lead in the opening frame.

UP NEXT: ASU hosts North Dakota on Jan. 10-11 at Mullett Arena. The sole time the two teams met was in the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame Game in Oct. 2022. The Sun Devils upset the Fighting Hawks in a 3-2 victory. 

GAME NOTABLES:

• Ryan Kirwan scored his 11th goal of the season in the first period to reach a four-goal weekend. It tied for the most in a two-game stretch since his freshman season at Penn State from Jan. 21-Jan. 22, 2022 when he recorded four goals in two games.
• Lukas Sillinger was credited with his 90th career assist on a Ty Jackson goal in the first period and his 11th assist of the season.
• Gibson Homer recorded a season-high 34 saves in the victory over No. 16 Cornell, it's the sixth time as a Sun Devil he's recorded 30+ saves in a game and second time this year. The shutout is the third of Homer's collegiate career.
• Noah Beck leads the team in plus minus after a massive +5 weekend including a +3 night on Friday vs. Robert Morris. Beck is on a three-game point scoring streak (5A)
• Beck and Bennett Schimek are tied for the team lead in points at 18 (3G, 15A)
• Artem Shlaine finished as +4 on the weekend. He led the ASU team in faceoffs on Saturday night with 15 wins, 13 losses (53.6 percent)
• Schimek executed a four-assist weekend
• Sam Court netted his second multi-point night of his career with one goal and one assist

With the win over 16-ranked Cornell, ASU moved to 2-5-1 against ranked teams this season

PERIOD BREAKDOWN
First Period
After the opening 10-minutes of hockey presented a stalemate, Ty Jackson broke the scoreless tie at the 9:34 mark on a rebounded shot fired by his twin Dylan Jackson. He was assisted by Dylan and Lukas Sillinger to give ASU a 1-0 lead.

In the final minute of the period, left-wing forward Ryan Kirwan stole the puck and snuck a five-hole shot past the Cornell netminder for ASU's second goal of the night. Kirwan's hat trick on Friday night and his goal on Saturday extended his point-scoring streak to four consecutive games.  

Second Period
Halfway through the frame, Lukas Sillinger slotted his first goal of the year to give the Sun Devils a 3-0 lead, he was assisted by defenseman Sam Court and Noah Beck.

In the dwindling moments of the period and on the power play, Sam Court pocketed his second goal of the year to supply the maroon & gold a 4-0 lead, Ryan Kirwan and Bennett Scimek picked up the assists.

Third Period
The Sun Devils fended off multiple scoring attempts by Cornell in the final five minutes of the game after the Big Red pulled their goalie, but Homer stood strong between the pipes to earn the shutout victory.

QUOTABLES:
Arizona State Head Coach Greg Powers:
On being Desert Hockey Champions:
"It's great, two years in a row. It's always great to win a trophy, especially in front of our fans. To do it against such a good team and a good program is awesome. I'm happy for our players. They're doing a great job. They're playing selflessly for each other and that's why we're playing really well right now."

On Gibson Homer's first start since November:
"Just the way he reset at break and the way he looked against the program. The way he's been practicing. He caught fire at this time last year. We put him in against Cornell, we matched up really well with how they play. It was just a hunch and sometimes they make me look smart, that's few and far between but tonight he was good."

On the recent success after a slow start and if anything has changed:
"The biggest thing is health. We got some guys back and to have that consistently. Getting a guy like (Artem) Shlaine back just as the driver in every way is huge. We've missed Dylan Jackson here and there and (Lukas) Sillinger for a weekend. We still haven't had Cruz (Lucius) and that's coming real quick and we're around the corner and we're excited about that. So just health but I think just staying processed focused and we keep talking about focused on the process and not results and we did that and we certainly are getting really good results."

Arizona State Goaltender Gibson Homer:
On being halfway through the season and meshing with the younger players:
"We've meshed really well. I think the freshmen and transfers have done an unbelievable job in integrating themselves into our culture and what we have going on here so it's been pretty easy with those guys."

On facing North Dakota next week:
"I think we've been on a good run now and I don't think there needs to be anything with them that will change that. Just that we have to play our game and when we play our game we're really hard to beat."

Arizona State Forward Lukas Sillinger:
On what led to success tonight in defeating Cornell:
"I thought we stuck to our gameplan pretty good, we stayed on top of them and kept them in the forecheck and we kept the puck out of the net thanks to Gibby."