From Liberty Club Sports
By Ted Allen
Liberty’s penalty kill unit was unscored upon and netted a shorthanded goal for the second night in a row, but lost the rematch, 5-4
Liberty University’s No. 4-ranked ACHA Division I men’s hockey team took No. 2-ranked host Adrian College down to the wire in a bid for a series sweep, Saturday afternoon at the Arrington Ice Arena, before the Bulldogs rallied from an early 1-0 deficit and held on for a 4-3 victory.
“We didn’t win the game, and our goal was to come up here and win two games, but there are a lot of positives we can take out of this weekend,” Flames Head Coach Kirk Handy said. “We did what we needed to do to come up here in a tough place and play consistently. If you look at it from a 20,000-foot view, these were two games we played well in back-to-back. There are things we can improve on certainly, but there were significant stretches where we played very well. We will continue to push to see how good this team can be, and that is an exciting part of it as we continue to grow and get better every game.”
Liberty seized a 1-0 lead by capitalizing in the closing seconds of a power play when sophomore defenseman Colten Kovich deflected senior forward Matt Bartel’s shot from the top of the left circle past Adrian goalie Noah Decottignies through traffic in front with 10:18 left in the first period.
“The first period, we had the upper hand as we had net-front traffic and put pucks on net,” Handy said. “That was a great shot by (Bartel) and tip by (Kovich) and I liked the way our guys were playing. There were a couple penalties we needed to be a little bit smarter on, but overall, the guys were battling hard.”
The Bulldogs bounced back and evened the score with 5:47 to play in the period when Matteo DeGiulio took a pass out of the right corner from Alex Schaumburger and lifted a wrist shot from the inside edge of the right circle past Flames keeper Hunter Virostek into the top-left corner of the cage.
Virostek repelled quality shots on goal during Adrian power plays late in the first period and early in the second, including a 5-on-3 for 32 seconds. The Flames nearly netted a shorthanded goal moments later when senior forward Jacob Kalandyk intercepted a pass in the neutral zone and put a shot on goal on the offensive end.
A costly turnover by Virostek resulted in an easy score by Bulldogs forward Nash Hatcher, who stole the puck away from the keeper as he attempted to clear it out of the slot and quickly pivoted and fired a shot into the back of the empty net, giving Adrian a 2-1 advantage with 8:52 to go in the second period.
The Flames’ PK unit tied the game back up on a shorthanded goal at the 4:08 mark when senior forward DJ Schwenke dug a clearing pass out of the left corner up to Kalandyk, who streaked down the center of the ice before flicking a shot from the left crease past Decottignies inside the left post.
“In the second period, we had quite a few PK opportunities, and our PK again this weekend was fantastic,” Handy said, noting that the Bulldogs went 0-for-7 on the power play while the Flames were 1-for-3. “For a good part of the game, we were penalty killing, but our guys are resilient, and they battled hard and played well. Last night, we scored shorthanded and again today, not only did they not give up any goals, but they scored one.”
However, Adrian reclaimed the lead a minute and a half later on a similar play as defenseman Brodie Thornton took a feed off a faceoff in the left corner and released a high clearing pass off the glass that perfectly led forward Nick Wideman for a breakaway opportunity down the center of the ice. He skated through the inside edge of the right circle before cutting back across the slot and tucked a backhanded shot through the five hole for a 3-2 advantage with 2:40 to play in the period.
Senior forward Truett Olson had two high-percentage shots on the tail end of a Flames power play saved by Decottignies before Virostek kept Liberty’s hopes alive with sensational point-blank saves on shots in the right crease by forwards Caleb Minns and Jordan Comilla at the 7:00 and 6:00 marks, respectively.
But the Bulldogs finally cashed in on a wild scrum in front of the cage when defenseman Matthew Shaw dove with the puck in front and dished the puck to Hatcher in the right crease for a close-ranged finish with just over four minutes remaining in regulation.
Virostek (38 saves) was injured on the play and replaced by Flames Division II call-up Nicholas Bernstein.
Liberty cut the deficit back to one goal with just under one minute remaining when Kalandyk ripped a wrist shot from the top of the left circle off a faceoff win by Olson into the upper netting of the cage.
But after pulling Bernstein for the final minute, the Flames could not capitalize on the man advantage and allowed the Bulldogs, who outshot the Flames, 42-27, to salvage the split.
Liberty will be back in action next Friday and Saturday in the LaHaye Ice Center when it hosts Maryville (Mo.) University with the puck dropping at 7 p.m. both nights.
(Originally published at https://libertyclubsports.com/news/2023/10/14/mens-d1-hockey-di-flames-battle-no-2-bulldogs-for-60-minutes-before-allowing-them-to-salvage-split)
