After a tough 7-1 loss to No. 3 Denver on Friday, Arizona State (5-8-1, 3-4-1 NCHC) bounced back to hand Denver (9-4-1, 5-1-0 NCHC) its first conference loss of the season thanks to Potter’s decisive overtime goal.

“It’s always good to score and to get the big win for us. It’s huge,” Potter said.

ASU made its biggest adjustment in goal, shifting from previous struggles to strong goaltending. Senior goaltender Connor Hasley got the nod and delivered a standout performance. After a .769 save percentage and three goals allowed the night before, Hasley made 42 saves on 44 shots with only two goals allowed.

“He’s our backstop, he’s our heart and soul. If he’s kicking, we’re kicking at the end of the day,” junior center Kyle Smolen said. “I think he felt like we had his back tonight. It’s important that we build our trust with our goaltender and tonight he was exceptional.”

Hasley added five more saves in overtime.

“He was tremendous,” head coach Greg Powers said. “He made those two huge saves in overtime, which were huge for us and gave us a fighting chance to win. Hasley was fantastic.”

Smolen also saw changes from Friday to Saturday, moving from right wing on the second line to fourth-line center with freshman wingers Carmelo Crandell and Ben Kevan.

“I’ll play anywhere I need to play. I don’t view the lineup as some people do,” Smolen said. “I just enjoy playing hockey. I'll play with anyone and try to make every line as good as I can. It’s my job as that older guy on that line to help lift those guys up and they stepped up to the plate today.”

Smolen earned first star of the game with three assists, including the primary assist on the game-winner.

“That’s why he’s our captain. He’ll do anything we ask,” Powers said. “He can play left, he can play right, he can play down the middle, he can play in the top six or the bottom six. He does everything for us. He’s the most willing kid I’ve maybe ever had, just able to do anything we need to win games.”

The third period has been ASU’s Achilles heel all season, but the Sun Devils flipped that script with three straight minutes of offensive pressure to open the frame.

“The third, in my opinion, was one of the best periods we’ve played all year,” Powers said. “We managed the game so well. We didn’t give up anything 5-on-5. The third period was a really good sign that this team is starting to learn how to manage games and close games out against arguably the best team in the country.”

With 12 freshmen and sophomores on the roster, growing pains remain a reality for ASU.

“It’s been a tumultuous, frustrating first 14 games, but we gotta build off this and move forward,” Powers said. “We have so much skill and depth on this team that we haven't put together yet, but tonight we did. We need a more balanced effort on the score sheet than what we are getting and we can’t rely on Bennet Schimek and Cruz Lucius to be the only guys to score for us consistently.”

All three ASU goal scorers Saturday came from the underclassman group.

While the win was significant for the Sun Devils, players emphasized the need to turn it into momentum.

“We gotta go forward with it now. We gotta be excited about winning that game at the moment, but now how can we take that and move forward and not go back down?” Smolen said. “How do we go up from here? And I think that’s the most important thing.”