By KEVIN OKLOBZIJA
At some point in the near future, Dylan Hollman will be analyzing spread sheets and plotting a path to profitability for some firm in the corporate world.
Last spring, Hollman graduated summa cum laude from Arizona State University with a bachelor of science degree in accounting and finance. He’s now working on his master’s degree in business law from the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law in Tempe.
For now, however, he’s just worried about the numbers the Sun Devils can produce on the ice as they seek their first NCAA Division I tournament berth.
On Friday night Hollman was magna cum laude on the RIT campus, firing two daggers at Rochester Institute of Technology in a 6-1 victory over the Tigers.
The senior left winger scored just 26 seconds into the game to give ASU an instant lead. Then, after the Tigers finally appeared to gain momentum on a goal by Ryan Kruper late in the second period, Hollman scored again, this time short-handed, as the 16th-ranked Sun Devils cruised to the win at the Gene Polisseni Center.
For the Tigers, the loss was just their second in the past 10 games (6-2-2). But since it was a non-conference game, it only impacted pride, not post-season hope for RIT (12-10-3).
However, for Arizona State (18-10-1), a program in just its fourth season of existence, a sweep in this weekend series in Henrietta is critical. They have just five games remaining, so winning five of the final six could enable them to secure an at-large berth in the NCAA tournament.
The score indicated a lopsided game. Except RIT outshot the Sun Devils 34-30 and had a decent amount of offensive zone play.
The Tigers just couldn’t solve goalie Joey Daccord, who ranks sixth nationally in save percentage, while RIT goalie Ian Andriano wasn’t too sharp. Then again, the Tigers lacked the same crispness they played with in recent weeks.
“I thought we were very slow in shooting the puck, maybe too slow to think,” RIT coach Wayne Wilson said.
And so while the score says blowout, Wilson didn’t think it felt like a lopsided loss.
“It’ wasn’t an ‘Oh, my God, we were overmatched,’ ” Wilson said. “It wasn’t our worst performance of the year. We didn’t make a lot of mistakes, it wasn’t a game full of errors.”
But when they made one, the Sun Devils capitalized. They led 2-0 after the first period and made it 3-0 on a Tyler Busch goal 6:03 into the second period.
Ryan Kruper gave RIT life with his second goal of the season at 15:55 of the second, and the Tigers then went on the power play just 1:28 later. Except it was ASU that capitalized, with Hollman scoring off a two-on-one fast break despite shooting from a so-so angle for his 11th goal.
“Everything went in for them and nothing went in for us,” said Kruper, who played center on a line with Erik Brown and Abbott Girduckis because Gabe Valenzuela is out week-to-week with an ankle injury.
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