From Liberty Club Sports
By Ted Allen
Liberty had its seven-game winning streak, which included its fifth straight ACHA DI national championship win over the Beavers, snapped at Minot.
Liberty University’s ACHA Division I women’s hockey team suffered its first setback of the season, and allowed Minot State to notch its first win in dramatic fashion, 3-2 in overtime, Saturday night at Maysa Arena in Minot, N.D.
“It was a grind, a tough matchup for us, and today, we just couldn’t get it done,” Lady Flames Head Coach Chris Lowes said after seeing his team’s seven-game winning streak snapped, dating back to its fifth consecutive ACHA DI national championship run in March, capped by a 3-2 victory over the Beavers.
Liberty (4-0-1) jumped out to a 1-0 lead at the 18:32 mark of the first period by converting a quick power-play goal when senior forward Brityn Fussy — who scored two goals in Friday’s 5-2 opening win — stuck in a putback of junior defenseman Madison Glynn’s high-slot shot from deep in the left crease.
The Beavers (1-3) responded quickly, tying the contest at 1 just 32 seconds later, when Lady Flames sophomore goalie Alexis Keith couldn’t cover a puck bouncing into the blue paint and Riley Ball crashed the cage and punched the loose puck into the back of the net.
With 4:58 remaining in the second period, freshman forward Ellie Sarauer stole the puck in the left circle as the Beavers tried to clear it out of the defensive zone. She cut back across the slot before tucking her backhanded shot under Minot goalie Haylie Biever for a 2-1 Lady Flames advantage.
The Lady Flames nearly capitalized on two power-play opportunities in the third period, including a 5-on-3 when Sarauer hit the left post on a one-timer in the left crease off junior forward Zosia Adamek’s pass from the slot. Then, with the teams back at even strength junior forward Haley Battles trapped the puck in the right crease and pivoted clockwise before lineing a low shot that Biever saved with her pads by going into the splits position.
Minot pulled Biever for the man advantage and netted the equalizer with 41.7 seconds remaining in regulation when defenseman Makenna Beard dumped a pass from the left boards off the back boards right to Ball, who sent a short feed into Paige Kozak in the right crease for a point-blank tap-in finish.
“They had a power play right before that, so we were really just hanging on there the last three minutes,” Lowes said. “As a coach, you look back and see that it wasn’t just that play, but early in the third, we had plenty of power-play opportunities and couldn’t get it done, and we lost the 5-on-5 battle, 2-0.”
Less than two minutes into the five-minute overtime period, with the teams skating 3-on-3, Kozak struck again by working a 2-on-1 fast break with Krissy Rink on a breakout. Rink sent Kozak a crossing pass before she skated down the slot and lifted a shot off the glove of Keith and into the back of the net for the game winner.
“It was an unfortunate bounce for Keith, who had the angle, and for it to pop up and drop behind her was disappointing,” Lowes said. “Keith gave us a chance to win today. She looked really good and really comfortable. I liked our chances in overtime, but we didn’t create much and they did a good job of weathering the chances we had, and they certainly had some sustained pressure on our end.”
Liberty only outshot Minot by a 22-20 margin and Biever made 20 saves to 17 for Keith. The Lady Flames finished 1-for-6 on their power-play opportunities while their penalty kill unit held the Beavers scoreless on five chances.
“There were flows of momentum,” Lowes said. “When you get a power play, essentially, you get all of the momentum until they kill it and it goes the other way, so we saw lots of those turns.”
Lowes said the Lady Flames will need to recover quickly from their first loss and first road trip, soon after flying back to Raleigh, N.C., and busing back to Lynchburg, Va., on Sunday.
“It’s early in the year and we’ve got a lot of work to do,” he said. “Now, we have to kind of regroup and pick a few areas to get better in this week in practice before UMass comes to town on Friday late (at 10:15 p.m.) and Saturday afternoon (1:30 p.m.). It will be a quick turnaround and it is going to be a tough semester.”
UMass lost two competitive games this weekend to reigning WMCH Tournament Champion Midland (8-0), which opened the season by sweeping Minot in Freemont, Neb.
“Give (the Beavers) credit,” Lowes said. “They had a real tough schedule to start the year and there were times when they did things better than us, like playing 5-on-5. We got one power play goal and one shorty and that was it. By the end of the year, that’s a team we’re probably going to have to see again at our (WMCH) conference (playoffs) or nationals.”
(Originally published at https://libertyclubsports.com/news/2023/10/14/womens-d1-hockey-lady-flames-allow-beavers-to-net-equalizer-in-last-minute-game-winner-in-overtime-to-split-series)
