From Liberty Club Sports
By Ted Allen
Liberty University’s ACHA Division I women’s hockey team made the most of its Fall Break by embarking on its first road trip of the season. After spending Friday touring Washington, D.C., the Lady Flames dominated Stevenson (Md.) University in its season opener, improving to 5-0 with a 10-0 triumph.
“We played a better hockey game than the last game we played, (a 3-2 overtime win) against Lindenwood,” Liberty Head Coach Chris Lowes said. “I was happy with the steps we took over the last two weeks. This game was very similar to the first game against Lindenwood (a 7-2 rout). Our girls, when we’re on, we can be dangerous. Our puck movement was better today and it looked like we had flow to our game. I was proud of the girls and the offense, especially, played really well.”
The game remained scoreless for the first 10 minutes before junior defenseman Julia McDonald launched a shot through traffic from the point that was tipped in by sophomore forward Carly Glover, with her first of two scores putting Liberty on top, 1-0.
Then, at the 5:25 mark, junior defenseman Julia McDonald skated to the top of the left circle and received junior forward Yannick Truter’s pass out of the left corner as she skidded to a stop near the boards before rifling a shot through the circle and past Stevenson’s goalie, doubling Liberty’s lead to 2-0.
The Lady Flames cycled around the Mustangs’ cage before sophomore forward Shannon Fehr finished with a wrist shot from in the right crease for a 3-0 advantage with 3:55 left in the first period.
Stevenson killed a penalty at the start of the second before sophomore forward Brityn Fussy slammed home a shot through the left crease for the first of her three goals on the game, stretching Liberty’s lead to 4-0 at the 17:32 mark.
“It was a big day for the line of Glover and Fussy with Vanessa in the middle, with five goals,” Lowes said. “It doesn’t surprise me, seeing the potential of that line in practice, but it is good to see the output.”
With 15:45 to go in the second, the Lady Flames capitalized on a quick counterattack with Fehr sending a beautiful feed to Truter as she skated down the slot before finishing with a one-timed backhand, making it a 5-0 contest.
After Liberty’s penalty kill extinguished four minutes of a Mustangs’ five-on-three advantage, Brielle Fussy assisted fellow freshman forward Haley Battles on a two-on-two break, putting the Lady Flames comfortably in control, up 6-0 late in the period.
Brityn Fussy ripped a wrist shot from the inside edge of the right circle off the left post and in at the 13:29 mark of the third, stretching Liberty’s lead to 7-0. Freshman forward Zosia Adamek then started a quick counterattack and drew two defensemen to her as she skated up the right wing before threading a pass to Battles for an open wrist shot down the slot, opening an 8-0 advantage with just under 8:00 to go.
“Zosia has really good awareness and recognition on the ice, and that was a prime example of her doing the work and setting up Haley for a really nice finish,” Lowes said.
Truter scored from the right end line after recovering the rebound of her own miss before Glover capped the scoring moments later with a point-blank finish of a cross-crease feed from Brityn Fussy with 5:37 to play.
“We dominated the first and third period, and still scored three goals in the second despite Stevenson outshooting us when we killed four minutes of five-on-three and a couple other five-on-fours,” Lowes said.
Liberty outshot the Mustangs 53-22 for the game and sophomore goalie Amanda Story made 22 saves to post the shutout.
“Story made one really nice save (on a penalty kill) where she pushed hard from her left to right and got a toe on a shot to block what was an open net,” Lowes said. “That was soul crushing for them and the kind of defining moment that changes the flow of a game.”
Liberty returns to the LaHaye Ice Center next Friday at 7:30 p.m. and Saturday at 4:30 p.m. to host Indiana Tech (4-1), a first-year program that is coming off sweeps of Miami (Ohio) last weekend and Penn State his weekend.
(Originally published at https://www.liberty.edu/club-sports/news/di-lady-flames-trample-mustangs-10-0-in-seasons-first-road-contest/)
