ASU defenseman Matthew Mayich wasn’t shown or mentioned during the pregame videos of the Sun Devils’ home opener against Holy Cross Friday night, Oct. 9, but there were yellow reminders of him everywhere.
Many fans pinned yellow ribbons with “MM27” on them that were provided outside of the arena. And each of Mayich’s teammates had a little yellow ribbon decal with a “27” plastered in the middle.
Sitting head coach Mike Corbett, who was on the field during a military-style workout that left Mayich on life support on Aug. 20, wore the yellow pin in the game.
Corbett has remained on staff while head coach Greg Powers was placed on Sept. 30, and assistant coach Alex Hicks was confirmed to miss the home series on Oct. 9-10.
“It’s hard, and people can
say what they want about the coaching staff and me personally. They dig up things and that’s their prerogative to do that,” Corbett said after the 2-1 loss to Holy Cross. “We hurt too. We’re human beings too. We were there too and we hurt. People have to understand that. To me, that’s all I’m going on say on that.
“I won’t speak for anybody else on the staff, they’re not here. But I know they feel the same way. Is there emotion? There’s always emotions. There’s going to be. This is a young man that I recruited. To me, that was something that was very big. We know this kid and we hurt just like everybody else. People lose sight of that at times and think that we’re these monsters and we’re not. We’re hurting just as much as anybody else in that room for the kids.”
Corbett’s time with the program beyond the opening weekend is unknown as the school continues its search for an interim. Corbett and the rest of the coaching staff were not introduced during the team’s introductions.
ASU pushed through all three periods, playing heavy in Holy Cross’ offensive zone but struggling to connect. However, the arena erupted when sophomore center Daniel Shlaine scored with five minutes remaining in the third period.
The excitement was short-lived, though, because Holy Cross scored two goals in nine seconds and took the lead with 1:15 left.
ASU returns to Mullett Arena to finish the series against Holy Cross on Saturday, Oct. 10, at 3 p.m. MST.
Reach the reporter or send tips for stories at jenna.ortiz@arizonarepublic.com, as well as @jennarortiz on X.
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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Arizona State hockey coach talks Matthew Mayich after home opener
